New Zealand pipfruit growers are banding together to take on Australia through the World Trade Organisation.
Around 25 growers from the Nelson area have now joined the Australian Access Action Group started by producers in Hawke’s Bay over concerns that Australia’s tactics were preventing market access for NZ apples and pears.
Australia has denied access because of the bacterial disease fireblight which it says is not present in its own country.
The issue has been subject to a protracted process of risk assessment that NZ growers believe has been deliberately stalled by the Australians.
Now the growers are looking for the government to take a case against Australia to the WTO.
The latest trigger for action was an announcement by Biosecurity Australia in February that there would be further delay in releasing the long-awaited new draft risk assessment report.
"We're fed up waiting and it's time this industry took some direct action," one producer told local media. "We need to put aside our differences and work together on this to put pressure on the government to go to the WTO."
Ian Palmer, Pipfruit NZ chairman, said: “It's the number one item on the Pipfruit New Zealand agenda. It's a matter of when, not if, we get access, but the question is whether it will be meaningful or not. We need political involvement to stop the delaying tactics.”
Mr Palmer said Australia was now due to release its new draft risk assessment in June or July but he too believed going to the WTO was the only solution.
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