KVH is currently consulting on a proposed pathway for growers in Exclusion and Containment regions to access kiwifruit plant material from Recovery regions with negligible increase in risk.

The proposed pathway is based on tissue culture and rather than relying on a single measure to mitigate risk, the pathway contains a number of different measures over a 14-month period to reduce risk to an acceptable level.

The pathway adopts relevant measures from the Actinidia Import Health Standard which allows tissue culture kiwifruit plants to be imported into New Zealand and includes the peptone screening protocol that allows for screening of low levels of Psa in tissue culture plants.

Details of this pathway are available on the KVH website, including;

· The summary presentation given to South Island and Whangarei growers this month

· An independent review of the pathway by Scion Research concluding that this pathway would result in negligible increase of risk in introducing Psa to these regions.

If you would like more details about the proposed pathway please contact KVH and a complete version of the pathway standard will be provided on request.

To provide feedback on this pathway please email info@kvh.org.nz or phone KVH on 0800 665 825 by 5pm Friday 2 November 2018.