Pathway Management Plan
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 Management 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,
more streamlined and simple rules and regulations,
right settings for early detection of new threats,
increased consistency and pragmatism.
The Pathway Management Plan Order in Council can be viewed and downloaded here. It is funded by a levy which you can read more about and download a copy of here.
What does this mean for me?
A simple overview of how to meet the requirements of the Pathway Management Plan is available here. For more details on specific areas of the Plan, please see the list of resources below.
A proposal for a new Pathway Management Plan was first raised by KVH in November 2019. Development, planning, and consultation stages were all contributed to by many from across the kiwifruit industry, who provided support and valuable input.
After the final consultation period ended in mid-December 2020, KVH incorporated changes suggested and backed by industry, and produced an extensive proposal document so that everyone had the opportunity to see the final version and how we took feedback into account.
The proposed Pathway Management Plan, for planned implementation from 1 April 2022, and a summary of feedback received during consultation (and resulting changes) were then submitted to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Minister for Biosecurity in April 2021 so they could go through the required parliamentary process for review and approval.
This process was completed in February 2022 and formal approval was received by way of Gazette notice published 24 February 2022. The associated Levy Order was also approved.
During the early consultation phases there were several documents, fact sheets, case studies, and presentations produced to help share information about the proposal and what the new Pathway Management Plan would mean for growers and others who work on or visit kiwifruit orchards. These documents are no longer current (as they do not incorporate feedback received during the consultation phases) however they remain available to reference here.
