A Te Puke orchardist who has been hit badly by Psa is calling for the Minister for Primary Industries, David Carter, to resign and a royal commission of inquiry into the vine killing disease.

Rob Thode, who says his family and Te Puke orchard has been devastated by Psa, is calling for the inquiry into the disease and Biosecurity NZ following the recent announcement of a Government support package for growers.

Te Puke orchardist is calling for the Minister for Primary Industries David Carter to resign over Psa.

'The announcement is a disgrace and an insult to kiwifruit farmers and disaster relief.

'I have no confidence in David Carter and demand his immediate resignation as Minister.

'It is my view that his ministry acted negligently in allowing Psa-V into New Zealand. This view is amply supported by the Sapere Report which pointed out many failings in Biosecurity NZ and the Ministry for Primary Industries.”

Rob says the ministry allowed Psa to spread in a 'massive firestorm” of disease.

'The Minister and the Ministry for Primary Industries has failed to exercise the duty of care it owes to kiwifruit farmers, workers in the kiwifruit industry, their families and the people of New Zealand.

'Both David Carter and his Ministry must now be held fully accountable for their destructive actions,” says Rob.

The Minster for Primary Industries, David Carter says Rob has made his concerns known for some time.

'The Government has engaged constructively with the kiwifruit industry in the response to Psa since it was first discovered here in 2010, and it continues to do so.

'This started with the establishment of a $25 million response fund, matched dollar-for-dollar by industry.

The minister says the Government's support package has been met with a positive response from growers and organisations including Zespri, KGI, KVH and Horticulture New Zealand.

Rob believes the Minister and Ministry for Primary Industries have specifically designed that package to cost the government only a few hundred thousand dollars.

'They have deliberately removed any meaningful measure of assistance to farmers from the original Adverse Events Package.

'They have also ignored that this event has already been running for two years and will continue to have huge effects over the next five years. They have failed to recognise that Psa has affected the kiwifruit industry on a national level,” says Rob, who believes because of means testing, few growers will qualify for the rural assistance packages.

Rob says it is incredible that the National Government will bailout finance companies, 'but not provide real help in a disaster they have had a significant role in causing”.

What growers need are grants and access to loans to help them rebuild their businesses destroyed by a virulent disease which was entered the country through the boarder, he says.

Rob says the way MAF (now the Ministry for Primary Industries) handled the Psa-V incursion should concern all New Zealanders.

'If they handled an outbreak of foot and mouth in the same way, leaving infected cattle alive for months to spread the infection, our primary industries would be wiped out.”

He says the Government did have the power, under the biosecurity provisions, to take immediate action to have infected vines destroyed, so reducing the spread of the disease, but that didn't happen.

His 15ha orchard is within four kilometres of where Psa-V was first identified in New Zealand in 2010 and was designated a restricted place with controls on movements in and out but it was seven months before his vines were removed.

'Growers didn't know how virulent Psa-V was but the ministry did. They knew it had killed Hort16A in Italy where it was found in 2007 and swept through orchards in 2008 and 2009.

'Instead of taking action, they turned the problem over to Zespri and ran away.

'We know from handling virulent diseases in humans that if you take quick action you can save lives.

'Now Psa-V is in every growing region except Nelson. This should never have happened.”

Rob purchased his orchard not long before Psa-V was found.

By then he had invested heavily in irrigation, shelter and orchard management, all measures his bank was willing to support as sensible for growing his business. In the first year he took production from 9000 trays a hectare to 14,000.

Now he has lost all but one third of his orchard income, had to let go staff and has spent heavily on trying to recover his vines, including grafting to the Enza Red variety which appears to be more tolerant of Psa than Zespri's new varieties, he says.