New Zealand’s peak apple and pear industry body Pipfruit NZ has slammed the comments of an Australian delegation that visited New Zealand apple and pear orchards last month, labelling one statement by Murray MP Dr Sharman Stone “a porky”.
Comments from the delegation that New Zealand apples represented a high risk of transferring the fireblight disease to Australia were in stark contrast to what the group saw on its visit, according to Pipfruit NZ.
“We always believed that they were not coming to New Zealand with an open mind to examine the growing and packing processes and understand the science better,” said Pipfruit NZ CEO Peter Beaven.
“Their comments since they returned to Australia merely confirm that their minds were closed to the evidence they should have been observing.”
The delegation included a number of Australian politicians, Dr Stone and shadow agriculture minister John Cobb among them, and officials from Biosecurity Australia.
The group visited orchards in Hawke’s Bay during flowering, the highest fireblight risk period, and was able to choose which orchards they visited and roam at will.
Comments from Dr Stone to the Australian media that the group visited a pear orchard that was “riddled with fireblight” were wrong, according to Pipfruit NZ.
“In common parlance, she is telling a porky,” the industry body said in a statement. “In the entire trip, the delegation found only one small twig of infected wood less than 15cm in length and dating from the previous year.”
The industry body pointed out that all the politicians on the trip admitted they had not read the rulings or evidence from the World Trade Organisation hearings between Australia and New Zealand.
“It is hard, therefore, to understand on what basis they are able to pronounce on fireblight with such authority,” the body said.
