Pathway Management Plan approved from 1 April

KVH is delighted to confirm the new Pathway Management Plan for the kiwifruit industry has successfully been approved by the Government for implementation from 1 April 2022.

This new Plan will better manage biosecurity risk for all the kiwifruit industry and is an achievement that reflects the efforts of all who have contributed to development, planning, and several consultation stages since we first announced the proposal in November 2019. Thank you to all of you for your support and valued input.

Notably, it’s also the first National Pathway Management Plan implemented under the Biosecurity Act, demonstrating the continued biosecurity proactiveness of our industry and an important step forward in the way we manage the risk of unwanted threats.

Kiwifruit is grown across multiple growing regions in both the North and South Islands, and young kiwifruit vines are produced by nurseries in parts of the South Island remote from kiwifruit growing regions. While individual and group actions in specific areas can help manage risk, the coordinated and consistent national approach provided by the Plan means we all have a united goal and set of objectives and measures that manage pathway risks across the country.

The new Plan is equivalent to the current National Psa-V Pest Management Plan (NPMP), but the key difference is it doesn’t focus on a single pest and allows us to manage a broader range of threats to the kiwifruit industry, so that we can detect anything new quickly enough to stop its spread, limit impacts, and aim for eradication. It will replace the current NPMP as it retains the important elements needed for Psa protection (e.g., controlling movements associated with high-risk pathways to the South Island) and provides much wider benefits, including streamlining and simplifying rules and regulations so they are more pragmatic, and deliver greater value for money.

The Pathway Management Plan will be funded by a levy under the Biosecurity Act 1993, with an initial rate of 0.4 cents per tray and a maximum rate of 0.7 cents per tray of kiwifruit. This levy will commence on 1 April 2022 and replace the existing levy for the Psa-V NPMP which will cease to be collected as of 31 March 2022, with activity of the Psa-V NPMP ending in May 2023 once reserves have been utilised. This means that KVH will effectively swap the NPMP levy for that of the Pathway Plan next year and keep KVH’s total levy collection from growers fiscally neutral and within the current total of 1.6 cents per tray of kiwifruit.

As we lead up to implementation from 1 April KVH will provide regular updates on new resources and longer-term projects underway that will make it increasingly easy and pragmatic to undertake best biosecurity practice and ensure a resilient kiwifruit industry.

More information:

• Wondering what to do next? Here’s a one pager on what you need to know.
• As a grower or person in charge of an orchard, you need to have a plan that covers the steps you take to identify and manage biosecurity risk on-orchard. KVH has a template to guide you through developing a plan if you don’t already have one, available here.
• You can read more detail about the Pathway Management Plan on the KVH website here. This includes fact sheets, case studies, and reference material from development of the proposal.
• The government’s formal Gazette notice, published Thursday 24 February, is available here.