A national management plan for dealing with kiwifruit vine disease Psa-V – announced today by the Government – is being welcomed by New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy announced today the National Psa-V Pest Management Plan has been formally approved by the Government.

The plan includes introducing a levy rate on exported kiwifruit to help cover disease management, monitoring, plant material movement and dealing with unmanaged and abandoned orchards.

The levy - voted on by growers - will have a shortfall until yields return to pre-Psa levels. As result, Cabinet has agreed that $3.5million, remaining from initial Government funding for Psa-V of $25million, will be passed to Kiwifruit Vine Health (KVH) to implement the plan.

'This plan means that the primary responsibility for managing Psa-V is now moving to the industry themselves, as they are best placed to co-ordinate and lead the response,” says the Minister.

'As part of this, the Government has approved a levy rate on exported kiwifruit equating to one cent per tray for green fruit and two cents a tray for gold fruit.”

NZKGI president Neil Trebilco says the NPMP is a vital tool for the industry to help reduce the impacts of Psa-V and manage orchards in a Psa-V environment.

'As an industry, we have had to accept that Psa-V is here to stay. As a result, we have had to change the way we manage our orchards and for most growers, this has meant extra work on the orchard and extra financial challenges,” says Neil.

'The NPMP is a key component to the on-going survival of kiwifruit orchards and the kiwifruit industry.

'We need to work together to keep inoculum levels low. An important part of achieving this is to effectively manage abandoned and unmanaged orchards. These are a real concern for some growers, causing unnecessary risks to successfully producing orchards.”

Neil says until now, the success of managing Psa-V, and keeping inoculum levels low, has relied on growers and the industry voluntarily applying best practice activities, with varied degrees of success.

'Kiwifruit Vine Health can now deliver a very high standard of Psa-V control and management.

'It also means as an industry, we can continue to upgrade our focus on other biosecurity risks facing the kiwifruit industry,” says Neil.

Minister Guy says the levy to be introduced has been voted on by growers and with the shortfall predicted – the $3.5 million, remaining from the Government's initial $25 million funding pool, it will help to introduce the new plan.

'Since the discovery of Psa-V in Te Puke in late 2010 there has been a very effective partnership between the Government and the industry on disease management. The Government has provided $25million, matched dollar for dollar by industry, to help fight the disease.”

'The industry body charged with managing Psa-V, Kiwifruit Vine Health (KVH), has done a great job in consulting with growers throughout New Zealand and developing the proposal for this plan. It has been pleasing to see a high-level of support from growers to establishing the plan,” says the Minister.

He says despite moving the management of Psa-V to industry, the Government still has a strong interest in the recovery of the kiwifruit industry.