KiwiNet workshop
This week KVH held a full day workshop to establish KiwiNet, the team that will coordinate the kiwifruit industries’ biosecurity readiness and response activities going forward (see below for an explanation of KiwiNet).
The workshop opened with a presentation of the Sapare Review – Lessons learned from the Psa-V response. This presentation set the scene for the day by providing recommendations of how we as an industry can improve our readiness for the next biosecurity incursion; establishing KiwiNet and developing readiness plans are key steps in achieving this outcome.
The main part of the workshop was about how KiwiNet will work—the responsibilities of the group and the roles of KiwiNet Coordinators within each industry organisation.
As a signatory to GIA (Government Industry Agreements for Biosecurity Readiness and Response), the industry will work closely with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and other industry signatories in preparing for, or responding to biosecurity incursions going forward.
The workshop covered how this partnership will work, how the industry will make decisions in a response, the roles we need to play across the industry and relative to others and how we will deploy and fund capability for readiness and response activities to match the industry best interests.
Finally, a fruit fly simulation was held to provide a practical context for the discussion. This simulation covered market access at a strategic level with Zespri providing guidance on decisions to consider in a response, and a second part that simulated KiwiNet deploying industry capability into the response.
Click here to view a selection of KVH presentations from the workshop and a copy of the KiwiNet Handbook.
The workshop was attended by members of KVH, NZKGI, Zespri, AsureQuality, MPI, Plant and Food Research and KiwiNet Coordinators from post-harvest organisations. The following post-harvest organisations have nominated a KiwiNet Coordinator:
- Aongatete
- Apata Group Ltd
- Birchwood Packhouse
- Cold Storage Nelson
- Cooper Coolpac
- D & M Satherley
- DMS
- Eastpack
- Hume Pack N cool
- Jackall Holdings
- Kerifresh / T&G
- KiwiProduce
- Mount Pack N Cool
- NZ Fruits
- OPAC
- Punchbowl
- The Pines
- Thomas Bros
- Trevelyan's
- Waimata Horticulture
- WE MJ Stevens
What is KiwiNet?
KiwiNet is the team of people selected from right across the kiwifruit industry (marketers, post-harvest, growers/NZKGI, key service providers associated with the industry and KVH) who will champion biosecurity readiness. And they will coordinate the deployment of kiwifruit industry resources into biosecurity responses.
KiwiNet exists to reduce the impacts on our industry if/when we face our next major biosecurity incursion, to retain the key lessons from our Psa-V experience and to build on this and to enable a pan-industry approach.
