Kiwifruit orchardists are being urged to continue with preparations for next year's crop, while signs of the bacterial infection Psa are being found on more and more orchards.

Minister of Agriculture David Carter and New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated president Peter Ombler on an orchard tour near Te Puke on Wednesday morning.

At 2pm on Wednesday, Zespri had received emails from 43 orchards with photos of symptoms matching photographs released to growers earlier this week.

There are 18 orchards being investigated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

There are three confirmed with vines infected with Psa. Two are neighbours and the third is 10km away.
Psa, or pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae, is a vine killing disease that over four years has badly knocked about Italian kiwifruit production.

An outbreak in the Lazlo region last season killed a quarter of the Gold kiwifruit vines and up to half the vines on some orchards.

Minister of Agriculture David Carter says it is possible the Te Puke bacteria is a latent infection which has remained dormant until a cold, wet winter stressed vines causing symptoms to flare.

'We do not know how the disease arrived in New Zealand,” says David.
'It is possible that it may have been here for some time – the disease appears to attack only under certain conditions.”
Psa carries no risks associated with human or animal health and does not affect plants other than kiwifruit vines.
Zespri is urging growers to implement orchard hygiene practices, particularly with movement of equipment between orchards, by sterilising pruning equipment, hosing down machinery, disinfecting footwear and washing hands.

Growers are also being urged to continue monitoring their orchards and reporting their assessment – positive and negative – back to the Zespri Grower Contact Centre.

The growers are asked to send photographs, not plant material.