In case you missed our announcement in the last Bulletin, a reminder the kiwifruit industry has a new framework to better manage biosecurity risk.

Effective from 1 April 2022, instead of focusing on a single pest like Psa, the new Pathway Management Plan focuses on protection against the full range of biosecurity threats to our industry and provides for a consistent and more pragmatic approach to managing pathway risks such as young plants, budwood, pollen, orchard equipment and other items moved by people.

The Pathway Plan is similar to the current National Psa-V Pest Management Plan (NPMP) but is more fit-for-purpose and makes sure all the right settings are in place so that we can detect anything new quickly enough to stop its spread, limit impacts, and aim for eradication. It will replace the NPMP - when that expires in May 2023 - as it will retain the important elements needed for Psa protection (e.g., controlling movements of high-risk pathways to the South Island) but also provide much wider benefits, such as:

• better protection,
• more value for money,
• increased consistency and pragmatism,
• more streamlined and simple rules and regulations,
• right settings for early detection of new threats.

We’ve updated the Pathway Plan page of our website with all relevant information and will be adding more resources over coming weeks. For growers, this one pager contains all you need to know at a glance.

If you have any questions at all, please get in touch.