Rural News // june 5, 2012
news 5
Kiwifruit growers plea for help pam tipa
“PLEASE HELP us” is the impassioned plea from Te Puke kiwifruit grower Rob Thode, who says growers feel abandoned. Many Psa-hit Te Puke growers are out of income, some have no money to dispose of their PSa-hit vines and they are grafting a new variety in this diseased environment with fears it too may succumb. Growers feel abandoned by the Government which meanwhile is paying at least $100 million to clean up after the sinking of the Rena – a foreignowned ship
Many kiwifruit growers feel abandoned as Psa has left them without any income.
Against that background Thode, who last June cut out his owned Psa-hit gold crop, says he understands why growers injected their vines with
streptomycin – an act of desperation. “The thing that really bugs me is we have a disaster and the Government hasn’t even declared it a
Warning signs clear RED FLAGS “should have been going up all over the place” when the kiwifruit vine disease Psa first emerged in Italy, says a top Otago scientist who has linked the New Zealand and Italian outbreaks with China. Professor Russell Poulter is 99% sure Psa-V came into the country in pollen, though MPI has so far only acknowledged it as a possible pathway. Poulter is among a group of Otago biochemists who have genome sequenced New Zealand and Italian Psa and discovered a definite link to China. He cannot absolutely prove Psa came into this country with pollen from China, he says, adding that in science it is rare you can prove anything beyond doubt. But he is 99% sure. “There is no way to provide an absolute guarantee of sterility of the pollen you import,” Poulter says. “At the time we were importing it we had no checks at all and you could say that was a bit slack of MAF.
“But we are not allowed by international agreements to just impose random non-tariff barriers to trade. You have to produce scientific evidence that there actually is a problem.” But with the benefit of hindsight, Poulter says once Italy had a major Psa outbreak “this should have caused red flags to go up all over the place”. “It’s like foot and mouth: all you need is one sick cow and it’s like an avalanche,” he says. Australians blocked all imports because “with a major pandemic blazing away all over the place, it is silly to let it in”. Poulter’s team has established the original source of Psa-V was China, but it is now sequencing the genome of the Chilean strain. “The question we would like to answer is whether the pollen came direct from China or whether it was via somewhere else, and the only likely area is Chile.” – Pam Tipa
disaster,” he says. Some growers have no crop this year so can’t pay their mortgages; many others will have no crop next year. “You have 2000ha in the Bay of Plenty going out of production. We have a massive disaster on our hands and the Government is providing no relief and is not acknowledging its part in a biosecurity failure that has had horrendous consequences.” Thode believes action should have been taken in 2008 when Psa “went charging” through the Italian orchards and we were importing pollen from China. Growers were now carrying the cost of Psa and the burden on their own. “It is tremendously un-New Zealand. You imagine a drought or a flood in which people are
‘Total madness’ GROWER ROB Thode says it is “total madness” that there is only one Gold cultivar (G3) being offered as an alternative to Hort 16A which has been decimated by Psa. “We haven’t got biodiversity and we are leaving ourselves open to another disease hit which could be just as severe as we have just had.” Thode says people overseas can grow what they like because they are
just left to themselves. That’s never happened in the history of New Zealand. The Government hasn’t done anything since the initial response. And that was appallingly handled; they just did testing and the disease was allowed to run rampant.” Thode says although he cut out his Psa vines, many others have not. He has lost a third of his Hayward (green) crop this year to
not restricted to growing Zespri varieties. (Zespri is the only New Zealand body licensed to export kiwifruit beyond Australia) “Going forward we desperately need about 10 cultivars and we need freedom,” says Thode. He knows of a New Zealander in Chile who is planting 1000ha with different varieties which is “really bad news for New Zealand exporters”.
Psa at a cost of $300,000, even though this variety is seen as Psa-resistant. He believes this is because of the disease-ridden environment in Te Puke. Last week was the deadline for growers to apply to graft for this winter the new Gold variety G3, which Zespri hopes will provide a recovery pathway. Fears have already been raised it too may be succumbing to Psa.
Thode says growers need to know if the Government will provide any assistance when they made that decision to buy G3 or not. He says growers need money for clean up alone. “How are some of the growers who have got no money whatsoever going to clean out their Hort16A? It is urgent to get rid of this disease-ridden cultivar or we haven’t got a chance of going forward.”
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