They’re in the Bay of Plenty and they’re small and furry.
Maybe it’s because they’re not as cute as penguins they’re not attracting the same national attention even though the danger facing them and the implications of it are probably greater.
Gold kiwifruit have been earning growers better returns than green ones but they are being threatened by Psa disease:
Predictions that the virulent Psa disease will wipe out the Te Puke heartland of the gold kiwifruit industry are getting closer to the mark, with 43 new cases recorded in the Bay of Plenty district in the past week.
As biosecurity officials struggle to contain the worst of the disease within the Te Puke region, which hosts most of the $1.5 billion export industry, the number of Psa-V infected orchards has increased to 369, 11 per cent of New Zealand orchards. In total 445 orchards or 13.3 per cent of total orchards have some form of the disease.
Gold kiwifruit are the industry’s star performer, earning much higher returns than green kiwifruit.
Psa is a bacterial canker caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae and is spread by airborne spores.
A friend who grows kiwifruit saw it in orchards in Japan several years ago and said it was only a mater of time before it reached New Zealand.
Since it was first identified here last year MAF and scientists have doing all they can to contain and eradicate it, but it is still spreading.
Whole orchards have been destroyed and with it the orchardists’ livelihoods, a considerable portion of the value of their land and all the jobs in the orchards and packhouses.
This is as devastating for the kiwifruit industry as foot and mouth disease would be to livestock farming.
Please visit http://worldofcae.blogspot.com A post on the PSA disease in Kiwifruit