Minister of Agriculture David Carter arrived in Te Puke on Wednesday morning to discover a third kiwifruit orchard in the area is showing signs of the Psa infection.

Rotorua MP Todd McClay with Minister of Agriculture David Carter and Zespri CEO Lain Jager at a meeting with kiwifruit industry representatives on Wednesday morning.

One orchard in the area has a confirmed infection of Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is awaiting test results from a second orchard.

The third orchard is under ‘restricted place notice' after Psa symptoms were discovered.

David Carter spent Wednesday morning meeting with kiwifruit growers and industry representatives at Seeka in Te Puke.

'I'm just as nervous as you guys,” David told growers.

While in Te Puke, the David will also visit Plant & Food Research and a kiwifruit orchard owned by New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated president Peter Ombler.

A ‘restricted place notice' is a notice under the Biosecurity Act 1993 that enables MAF Biosecurity to manage the movement of infected items. It is specific to a single property.

The notice stops movements of items on or off the property that could spread the organism MAF Biosecurity is concerned about.

It does not include people who live on the property.

Where there is no risk, specific items will be given permission to be introduced onto the property or taken off.

A restricted place notice is usually placed once or twice a year. The last one was in December 2009 to manage a termite incursion in Nelson

The restricted place notice also enables the property owner to be ‘protected' from loss from any activities undertaken by MAF in dealing with the infection.