Friday, March 29, 2024

MPI seizes US fruit trees

Avatar photo
About 55,000 plants at five apple and stone fruit nurseries have been siezed in a Primary Industries Ministry operation to protect New Zealand from an American biosecurdity threat.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The precautionary move follows an MPI audit in March that uncovered incomplete and incorrect record keeping at United States facility, Clean Plant Centre Northwest – Fruit Trees. 

It is responsible for screening apple and stone fruit plant cuttings before they are imported, MPI response manager John Brightwell said.

“As a result of our audit, MPI put an immediate stop to imports from this facility and we stood up an investigation to trace all known consignments which were imported to NZ from 2013 onwards. 

The operation traced 55,000 plants including commercial trees and budwood.

The nurseries and some growers have been told to seize and hold the affected plant material.

“There is no evidence at this stage that any of the material is infected with pests or diseases of concern but MPI is taking a precautionary approach.

“We have worked closely with the affected nurseries, growers, and horticulture industry throughout this process and we are grateful for their help.

“While we appreciate these restrictions will have an impact on nurseries and growers we have to take action to deal with potential risks to maintain our biosecurity system and to protect our horticultural industry from potential biosecurity risks.

“We are working with the affected nurseries and growers along with industry representatives to decide on the next steps and the best way to manage the affected plant material.

“Managing biosecurity risk is our top priority but we will also be working with the affected nurseries, growers and with industry to retain the highest value material if it is possible to do so. 

“However, it is likely that many of the imported cultivars will need to be destroyed.

“MPI is also working with US authorities to gather further information on the health status of the mother plants from which the imported material was derived.

“US authorities have treated the matter seriously and are conducting their own investigation into how this occurred and they are working closely with MPI to address issues raised by the audit. 

“We believe this is an isolated case but to provide additional assurances MPI will be reviewing our auditing processes of all offshore facilities to ensure they are fit for purpose. 

“It is our understanding that NZ is the only country that audits this type of offshore facility.

“Our actions demonstrate how seriously we take our biosecurity and the high expectations we have of assurances provided by our overseas trading partners,” Brightwell said.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading