Today marks an unfortunate anniversary no one is likely to celebrate, but it is nonetheless an important one.

It is three years since the vine disease Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae, more commonly known as Psa-V, was first identified on a kiwifruit orchard near Te Puke - a bio-security incursion expected to cost the industry $885million.

It is three years to the day when Psa-V was first discovered in a kiwifruit orchard near Te Puke.

Last year a report by Lincoln University's Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit estimated 1410 jobs would be lost up until 2015, and Psa would cost the industry between $310-410million in impacts of the disease and the cost of responding to it.

A further $740-885million in lost development will be felt.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc CEO Mike Chapman says cutting out gold Hort16A, and replacing it with the more Psa-tolerant Gold3, is estimated by the Ministry for Primary Industries to cost $25,100 per hectare.

When the cost of the Zespri licence to grow Gold3 is included, this totals $33,100.

'My calculation is more than 2000 hectares have been converted to Gold3 at a total cost of about $60million. Gold3 will not start producing a crop for two to three years; and each hectare is likely to have less than a full canopy due to Psa.

"Based on 2013 figures across the industry (before orchard expenses, debt repayment and drawings), a staggering $182million of income is not coming back to kiwifruit orchardists each year until they can grow a crop.”

Prior to November 2011, growers had been well aware of how the bacteria had devastated orchards in Italy.

News it was in Te Puke, in the heart of the prime kiwifruit growing region, spread shock and fear through the industry and wider communities so reliant on kiwifruit returns for their survival.

For individual growers, the disease has been a scourge seriously threatening their livelihoods and futures. Many also struggled with the emotional impacts of the disease.

Post-harvest companies, contractors and businesses which rely heavily on the industry for incomes have suffered too. Few would want to re-live the last three years.

Currently, 76 per cent of New Zealand's 3267 kiwifruit orchards have some vines infected with the disease and the only disease-free growing regions are Whangarei, North and West Auckland and the South Island.

But, despite dire predictions of doom and devastation cast in late 2011, the New Zealand kiwifruit industry has not died. In fact, three years on, there's a quietly growing optimism in its future.

The industry is emerging, as it has from other crises, in a leaner, more efficient and better-prepared way for any future biosecurity incursions.

It has not been easy, and there is a way to go before the industry can claim to be out of recovery mode and back into growth mode.

No cure has been found for Psa-V and nor is one likely. The best hope is growers can learn to manage it; and that Hayward Green and the new gold G3 will continue to show tolerance to the disease.

In future, new and even more tolerant varieties may be found, but for now these two carry the hopes and fortunes of the industry.