Seven more Te Puke orchards have been identified with Psa-V in the last week and one more orchard in Tauranga has also been confirmed with the disease.

Kiwifruit Vine Health reports 1166 orchards have now been identified with Psa-V, most in the Te Puke region.

A total 35 per cent of the country's kiwifruit orchards now have the disease destructive to the gold Hort16A variety of kiwifruit.

Meanwhile the 2012 kiwifruit harvest is now under way with around 95 million trays expected to be exported.

It is down on last year with 2011 experiencing a record crop of around 115 million trays, an increase of 12 per cent on the 2010 season.

The estimate this year is for up to 22 million trays of gold kiwifruit (Hort16A and the new varieties), around 70 million trays of green kiwifruit and around 3.5 million trays of green organic kiwifruit.