KVH’s strategy through to 2020 ensures we continue to be an effective and focused industry body.

The strategy reflects the significant change KVH has been through since our inception in 2011 when activities focused on Psa, to an organisation that now leads biosecurity protection on behalf of kiwifruit growers and industry. It’s based on a three-pronged defence – protection, readiness and response, and management.

What does this mean in practical terms?

When we talk about protection, we’re talking about the work KVH does to help stop any biosecurity risk before it reaches our border (through global scanning to identify new risks and influencing government and industry) and ensuring nothing arrives here that we didn’t already know about.

This includes influencing policy setting and working with regulators to develop legislation that affects the industry. We’re a key Government Industry Agreement (GIA) partner, achieving maximum value in the delivery of cost-effective biosecurity operations. Read more here.

We focus on readiness and response activities so the industry is prepared and ready to respond quickly to any incursion. This involves having robust plans that are explicit about the roles and responsibilities all parties have, testing the plans (through simulations and workshops), and making sure everyone involved has the tools, systems and resources they need. Read more about our most recent incursion exercise here.

In the event of an incursion, KVH will lead ongoing management including on-orchard management strategies, making sure the industry is well coordinated, and assuring alignment with any Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) activities. A big part of this work is promoting ‘best practice’ to reduce biosecurity risk to growers.

Underpinning the strategy is a comprehensive communications awareness campaign and a KVH/Zespri funded Research and Development programme that is providing pragmatic solutions to some of our biggest biosecurity issues.

The KVH Strategy 2017-2020 has been designed as a short, easy-to-read leaflet available online (growers will also have received a printed copy recently in their AGM packs) and includes a plan for how we'll operate to achieve results.