News that kiwifruit pollen was being imported into New Zealand prior to the outbreak of the kiwifruit vine-killing disease Psa-V came as a bombshell to beekeepers.

Neil Mossop of Mossop's Honey, whose 60-year-old family business is one of the largest offering pollination services to the kiwifruit industry in the Bay of Plenty, says the information in the report on Psa this week is concerning.

'The first we knew of the imports was in 2010 at a meeting in Te Puke following the discovery of Psa when it was said pollen might be a vector for the disease.

'Our industry had no idea pollen was being imported and MAF had not bothered to consult us. When I contacted MAF I was told there were no risks to the bee industry from imported pollen.”
Neil says he was concerned bee disease not presently in New Zealand, could come in on imported pollen, used to artificially pollinate kiwifruit flowers.

Artificial pollination is the term given to the method of applying pollen to flowers without the use of bees.

The most common is to blow or spray the pollen on flowers to supplement bee pollination, as bees don't work in all weathers and may not pollinate an entire orchard block.

When it became clear pollen had been imported, some large beekeeping companies threatened to withdraw their hives from kiwifruit pollination, concerned their bees may contract diseases from the imported pollen.

However, once it was established that the bacteria Psa-V had been found on pollen, artificial pollination companies withdrew their services for the 2010 pollination season.

Neil says he is pleased the Ministry for Primary Industries (formerly MAF) has released the findings of an independent report into Psa and biosecurity but those findings give him cause for concerns over border controls.

'At the National Beekeepers Association conference last week members indicated that biosecurity was their number one concern.

'Our industry wants to ensure we don't have another varroa mite incursion.”

The mite, which was discovered in New Zealand in 2000, has now spread throughout the country, costing the industry millions of dollars in keeping hives healthy and virtually wiping out wild bee populations.

'The industry still has the threat of the importation of Australia honey hanging over us. Australia has disease we don't and these could potentially come in on their honey.”

Neil says the report's recommendation that MAF (now MPI) reprioritise its resources towards managing risks for economically significant industries was encouraging but he wonders if beekeeping would be considered `economically significant'.

'The beekeeping industry exports around $100million worth of products each year but we believe its contribution to the primary sector in terms of paid and free pollination service is worth around $5.2 billion annually. Beekeeping is important to New Zealand's economy.”