Newsroom

2024 marks several significant milestones for the kiwifruit industry: the 35th anniversary of the Single Desk, 30 years of NZKGI, and 25 years since the Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring Act allowing Zespri’s commercial operations. To celebrate these milestones, NZKGI will be holding a special gala dinner event, Tuesday 22 October. All growers and the wider industry are kindly invited to attend. When: 5.30pm, Tuesday 22 October Where: Mercury Baypark, Mount Maunganui Tickets: Buy here

KVH will be at the Port of Tauranga over the coming weeks, highlighting frontline efforts to ensure a pest-free environment. There are many enthusiastic people who work on and around the Port who know biosecurity is a critical issue, affecting everyone in some way. With hundreds of people operating on the frontline of the Port community daily, we have lots of eyes constantly on the lookout for unwanted pests. The Port deals with millions of tonnes of cargo each year, and around 100 cruise ships over every summer, so we all need to be ready, vigilant, and watchful. Biosecurity matters at Ports because it is also a significant business risk. The frontline staff we’ll be meeting with and talking to - such as stevedores, and straddle/crane drivers - are the best placed to initially notice and report anything unusual. Our key message is if something happens, there will be a cost to you, your job, or your business, and you need to know what you can do to stop it. As the organisation responsible for leading biosecurity preparedness on behalf of the kiwifruit industry, KVH partners in this initiative alongside the Port of Tauranga and the local Biosecurity New Zealand team. Other activities with the Port community include staff from Biosecurity New Zealand visiting transitional facilities across the Bay of Plenty to share up-to-date information about managing risk and distribute useful collateral such as the ever popular 12 most unwanted pests calendar produced by the partnership, and both Biosecurity New Zealand and KVH taking part in pre-cruise season briefing sessions for the Port’s security staff. You can see online versions of the resources we’ll distribute this year here: Annual pest calendar September 2024 - August 2025"Most unwanted pests” playing cardsSpot it, snap it, report it frontline lunch bags

What are the top five things you need to do if you are part of the kiwifruit growing community in New Zealand, to ensure you are following biosecurity best practice and managing risk? We’ve created a video – it’s only two minutes long – running through all five easy to follow steps. It’s specifically designed to help with training, and for use at places like reception areas and events so if you’d like a copy let us know. Thank you to the team at Trevelyan’s for the support in producing the video, including the sites and wonderful talent! Watch it here.

The KVH Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held Wednesday 21 August, and we thank all those who were able to attend, and those who voted. All Resolutions were passed at the AGM: That the minutes of the 2023 AGM be approved. That the Chairman and Chief Executive’s reports be approved. That the financial report for the 12 months ending 31 March 2024 be approved. Approval of the Biosecurity (Readiness and Response) and the Biosecurity (Kiwifruit National Pathway Management Plan) levy rates. For the year ending 31 March 2026 the Biosecurity (Readiness and Response) levy continues at the rate of eight tenths of a cent – 0.8c - per tray equivalent on all commercial varieties of kiwifruit except Actinidia arguta, exported to all markets other than Australia, and the Biosecurity (Kiwifruit National Pathway Management Plan) levy continues at the rate of six tenths of a cent - 0.6c - per tray. That the budget for 2025/26 be approved. That Directors fees increase by 3% for the 2024/25 financial year. That BDO be reappointed as the auditor for the 2024/25 financial year. That Liarna White is re-elected as a Grower Director, and Fiona Carrick is re-elected as an Independent Director, both for a term of three years. If you have any questions about the results, please contact KVH or speak to a KVH Director. All AGM documents, including Resolutions, financial statements and budget information are available to reference on the KVH website.

Recordings of the great presentations at our Biosecurity Symposium are now available to view on our YouTube channel here. The most viewed since we put them up late last week are Danny Le Feuvre’s reflections from the Australian Varroa Mite response, and the governance panel discussion about the kiwifruit industry’s journey in biosecurity; what biosecurity means to them and the organisations they represent; and how they support the theme of the Symposium – ensuring we continuously build resilience. The panel said it is critical that we all (as individuals, organisations, and within our growing communities) protect grower and business returns by taking responsibility for understanding biosecurity risks and have plans and processes ready and in place as routine practice, before a new threat arrives. Ensuring we keep up with basic biosecurity practices and don’t become complacent in this space is something we’ll be discussing further in future Bulletins with examples of real life personal and community impacts of biosecurity incursions.

Frank Sinatra famously sang that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. And that’s just what worries some scientists who have been studying a particular species of ant. This ant, nicknamed the ManhattAnt, first turned up in the city in 2011. Back then, no one knew where it came from, and for years it was mostly ignored. But this ant has flourished in the Big Apple, so much so that it’s now vying with a species called the pavement ant for being the most common ant in the city, and what’s more, ManhattAnts have started to spread beyond their namesake island, expanding their territory at a rate of about a mile a year. Scientists are now trying to figure out why it has been so successful, in order to better predict whether it’s likely to threaten native insect species or damage trees and other plants, as ants are well known to have ripple effects through ecosystems that lead to unexpected consequences. Yet another real-life and current example of the importance of always keeping up with good biosecurity practices and not allowing things to creep in around us – it can happen so easily! Image: ManhattAnts are managing to live in a planter in Times Square. Credit Rebecca Senft.