Legal restrictions on the movement of kiwifruit nursery stock imposed in June have been lifted.

The restrictions were imposed to try and contain the spread of the vine disease Psa-V.

A Psa-V infected vine.

They meant living kiwifruit plants, root stock and budwood were not able to be moved out of a zone in an area around Te Puke.

It was done to prevent material possibly infected with Psa-V being moved into areas free of the disease.

It failed to prevent the spread of Psa-V, which is now also confirmed in Whakatane, Waihi Tauranga, Opotiki and Pukekohe.

The order was the only legal avenue available to prevent movement of propagation material leaving the infected area, says Kiwifruit Vine Health biosecurity manager Brad Siebert.

All nurseries in the Te Puke area had their root stock and plantings destroyed, they were ordered to stop propagating, and there were ongoing non propagation agreements between the Te Puke nurseries and KVH.

'If you tell someone not to something you have to compensate them for the loss of business,” says Brad.

As Psa-V is beyond Te Puke zone, KVH which is managing the Psa response has instead developed a set inter-regional plant movement controls with support of the kiwifruit industry, which apply across all New Zealand kiwifruit growing regions.

It means there is now little point in retaining the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry movement controls that were imposed only the Te Puke area.

It works by orchardists only buying nursery stock from Psa free regions.

KVH has regional networks in place to work with growers to ensure compliance with these.

'We can't tell nurseries not to sell something, but we can tell the industry where to buy it,” says Brad.

'We can't tell Katikati nurseries not to sell their stock but we can tall growers in Gisborne not to buy from there.”

It will be the same with the graftings of new varieties.

Orchardists in Te Puke will be securing there graftings from Gisborne where there is no Psa-V at the moment.