August 7 has been set as the date to start what promised to be a protracted court case with Kiwifruit Claim group versus the Government.
The Government denies the Ministry for Primary Industries (then known as Biosecurity New Zealand) was negligent in enabling the Psa incursion to occur.
Group spokesman John Cameron said the 212 growers represented were individuals adversely affected by the Psa outbreak while all those in the industry today continued to grapple with the disease’s presence.
“I personally think there may well have been more growers who would have stepped into the action but they were put off by some in the industry who were actively discouraging it.”
When the claim was mooted it was slammed by Zespri chairman Peter McBride who said he felt the claim failed to communicate the uncertainties that lay around it.
Kiwifruit Growers also publicly opposed the action, producing an open letter signed by most major growers, packers and orchard groups and presented to then Prime Minister John Key in late 2014.
But Cameron said there was a strong matter of principle at stake in taking MPI to court to challenge its ability to act as biosecurity guardian for the primary sector.
“The industry has asked us what is in it for them. It’s a good question that I have never wanted to walk away from but I would certainly hate to have something happen in the industry again like what is happening to the likes of oyster farms, for example.”
He said if the claim succeeded it would be a legal landmark.
He was confident it would succeed on grounds the claimants had strong DNA evidence on the source of the Psa strain.
“We have DNA evidence the strain of Psa that led to the outbreak in NZ matches almost identically Psa from Shaanxi Province,” he said.
There had been claims Psa came in through imported pollen distributed through the Te Puke district.
A second part of the proceedings, should culpability be proved, was to seek compensation for growers from the Government.
“Today we are seeing the Gold sector of the industry surge ahead. However, some of these growers are not able to participate today in that because of the losses they took back in 2010 with Psa. The gains they see today are just rubbing salt into their wounds, particularly when you consider the cost of a Gold licence today.”
Psa has continued to haunt the industry, with incidences tending to peak over stressful, cold, damp periods in orchards. Last spring was particularly problematic in some orchards, resulting in a reduced Green harvest.
Total Green trays harvested this year were 69 million, down from last year’s record harvest of 83m.
MPI has denied all claims of negligence in the action.
Cameron said the case was expected to span 13 weeks in the High Court at Wellington.
