In less than a month of furious activity and investigation following the 8 November outbreak of kiwifruit canker, New Zealand’s industry has settled on a strategy of containment, after the emergence of evidence indicating the bacterial disease has actually been present in the country for some years.
DNA tests of stored kiwifruit pollen samples collected over the past few years shows definite presence of the Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae (Psa) bacteria for 2009 and 2010, with weak positive results returned from samples taken in 2007, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s (MAF) agency Biosecurity New Zealand.
“I think the very wet spring expressed it,” explains Evan Heywood of grower Golden Bay Fruit. “Most of the symptoms are just leaf spotting. If you talk to growers, we’ve seen that before, we just haven’t called it Psa.”
The disease was first detected in Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty region, and has now been picked up throughout most of New Zealand’s kiwifruit production areas with detections in 113 orchards as of early December. It appears, however, that the country will avoid the kind of widespread damage caused by the disease in Italy’s kiwifruit industry in 2010.
Part of that is no doubt due to New Zealand’s different climatic conditions, but going forward much of that damage mitigation is likely to come from the rapid response of the New Zealand industry to the outbreak, which has been complemented by spectators both within New Zealand and globally.
“I think generally we’ve had a huge amount of positive feedback from within industry on how it’s been managed,” says Peter Ombler, president of peak grower body New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc. The single-desk structure of the country’s kiwifruit industry has allowed the sector to organise its response plan extremely rapidly, he says, and growers are now feeling confident the disease can be managed.
Information strategy
The dissemination of information has been one of the key factors in the industry’s response to the outbreak, characterised by daily updates on detection figures and management techniques from Zespri and other industry groups. That was all part of a pre-developed crisis management framework, according to the kiwifruit marketer.
“Part of that framework is a focus on communication,” explains Carol Ward, the company’s director of corporate and grower services. “Lots of growers had a high level of concern about their orchards, and we decided early on we needed full focus on keeping industry stakeholders informed on a regular basis on what was happening.
“We were concerned that if we didn’t provide full information to the media there was the potential for misinformation to go through,” she explains.
Lessons to be learned
The New Zealand kiwifruit industry’s rapid response to the Psa oubreak could provide some lessons to other industries dealing with similar disease issues.
New Zealand’s own strategy was informed in part by the Italian industry’s response to Psa, called Batteriosi in Italy, according to Mr Ombler.
“We’ve seen what’s happened in other countries, and there’s lessons to learn from that,” he says. “One is that until you know differently, you need to adopt a conservative position and do so very quickly, to try to avoid some of the issues that have occurred in other countries.”
Peter Beaven of apple and pear industry body Pipfruit New Zealand says there are definite lessons to be learned from the efficient way the kiwifruit industry responded to the disease. All the major primary industries in New Zealand, including meat, wine and grapes, are now in discussions with Biosecurity New Zealand on how to improve readiness, response speed and security, he says.
The kiwifruit industry itself is also hoping to learn from the episode. Ms Ward says Zespri has initiated a full review of its response both internally and across the wider industry. “We’re trying to take our own lessons out of it, and hopefully there are lessons for other industries,” she says.
Down the road
There are still many unknowns about Psa and how it will behave under New Zealand’s climatic conditions and orchard management practices. Now that the kiwifruit industry has settled on a containment strategy, it is mobilising its not inconsiderable research capability to address the knowledge gaps.
Research is expected to focus on control and treatment measures, as well as an inspection of disease vectors – how the bacteria is transmitted and what the risks are. While current research suggests Psa is not carried by mature kiwifruit, and no markets have suspended imports of New Zealand kiwifruit, the data is not yet comprehensive.
The outbreak has also meant significant changes to standard orchard hygiene practices, according to Mr Ombler. New protocols have already been developed for movement on orchards and pollination, and new protocols will no doubt be developed for harvest as that part of the season nears.
Management of the disease from this point will be managed by the newly-formed industry body Kiwifruit Vine Health Incorporated (KVH), which has been established with NZ$50m (€28.27) in government and industry funding, and aims to implement an aggressive containment strategy and develop and implement a long-term pest management and monitoring plan for Psa.
Upcoming season
Despite the drama of the outbreak, New Zealand’s upcoming kiwifruit season looks like it will be a credit to the industry. The country had a cool, wet winter and spring in 2010, followed now by a dry summer.
“The crop looks pretty smart,” says Mr Ombler. “The gold crop looks alright, the green crop looks alright. Yes, we’ve got an issue in isolated situations, but the big picture is not something to be concerned about. We’re expecting to produce a good crop.”
Coming into mid-December, the Hayward variety had just finished flowering, and the Hort16A Zespri Gold variety had set fruit about four weeks previously. Sizing is reportedly good, and the wet winter and dry summer means dry matter levels will be high.
“Life is just carrying on,” states Mr Heywood. “The Kiwis will be fine.”
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