A plant pathway for all regions

Regional boundaries and classifications are important to protect areas with little or no Psa and manage risk from new or evolving forms of the disease. Following consultation with growers, KVH has released a new pathway standard that will continue to manage this risk, but also enable more growers to access kiwifruit plant material, especially new varieties.

The standard provides a robust, and strictly controlled pathway that allows material from Recovery regions to be moved to Exclusion or Containment regions, with little to no increase in Psa risk.

Based on tissue culture, the pathway contains several different measures to mitigate risk over an 18-month period that reduce this risk to an acceptable level. An independent review of the pathway was undertaken by Scion Research found the pathway would result in negligible increase of risk in introducing Psa to these regions. Recommendations made in the review have also been adopted within the pathway.

The role of KVH is to develop a pathway and ensure risk is sufficiently managed. The movement of plant material, and costs associated with this process will now be borne by commercial parties, of which Zespri and Plant & Food Research have expressed an interest.

The standard has effect from now and any qualifying plant material for movement can be notified to KVH to begin the process of using the pathway. If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or phone KVH on 0800 665 825.