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New Zealand Apples and Pears January update

Posted By HBFA | January 20, 2025

The new year kicked off with a bang when routine inspections of a biosecurity surveillance trap in Auckland found a single male Oriental Fruit Fly on January 3.
For many across New Zealand’s biosecurity network, this signaled an abrupt back-to-work and a swift move to a Level 1 Response.

The area of Papatoetoe where the find was made was immediately identified as a controlled zone, divided into two sections – Zone A which was 200m radius area from the original find and Zone B was a 1500m radius area from the original find.

Additional traps and lures were added to the zones as part of the response and the checking frequency was increased with an initial goal to determine whether a breeding population was present.
Thankfully to date, no other fruit flies have been found.

As a signatory of the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) deed, NZAPI was highly involved. Biosecurity Manager Rachel Masters, as a member of the Response Governance team, and Chief Executive Karen Morrish, met daily with GIA partners.

To ensure all affected parties were informed, meetings were held with other key stakeholders, exporters and communication teams, ensuring efficient and effective information was distributed in the most appropriate and timely manner.

Preparations are ongoing to ensure we are prepared for any further fruit flies finds or if the response level is changed.

As we move through the response, it has provided the opportunity to test our systems and processes, develop and foster relationships with key stakeholders and collaborate on finding the most effective solutions.

This has been the first fruit fly response since 2019 and highlights the critical role of our biosecurity systems and the 7878 surveillance lures and traps across the country.

The Oriental Fruit Fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) can affect more than 300 hosts including apple, kiwifruit, citrus, and tomatoes and an established population would generate control costs and production losses, with some international markets potentially halting imports from Aotearoa.

It is also a very important reminder of the role of biosecurity when maintaining how we do business, which means now is a good time to consider the part you play and how you could be affected.

New Zealand will continue to face biosecurity risks. And while we have one of the best biosecurity systems in the world, we must all play our part in improving our risk management effectiveness.

NZAPI provides a range of resources on preventative measures that you can be doing now in your business.

If you’d like to know more about how you can do your part, please reach out to NZAPI Biosecurity Manager Rachel Masters on rachelm@applesandpears.nz

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