The shares gained 3.6% to $5.70 after Te Puke-based Comvita said myrtle rust's risk to the wider industry was low, based on its analysis of Australian outbreaks.
"Neither our Australian joint venture partner Capilano nor apiary businesses in Tasmania, with whom we have been speaking, have had any reports of myrtle rust being found in Leptospermum species since the fungus was discovered in mainland Australia in 2010 and Tasmania in 2015," chief executive Scott Coulter said.
"There has been no impact from myrtle rust on their honey production."
Comvita's shares took a double whammy from the outbreak, which coincided with a poor honey harvest and aggressive competition through China's informal online trading channels which weighed on earnings.
Coulter said the New Zealand discovery of myrtle rust was consistent with Australia's experience so far and the fungal disease hadn't been found on wild manuka plants, only in plant nurseries and domestic environments.
Still, Comvita was treading carefully with procedures to identify and report the disease, regular inspections of its nursery stock and a treatment regime for plants before they were moved from nurseries.
The company was also investigating ways to breed plants resistant to the disease and what it could learn from Australia's outbreak.
– BusinessDesk
