Apple producers in parts of New Zealand's South Island are reportedly facing a major challenge from what is being described as the worst ever outbreak of European canker, a fungal disease spread by wet and windy conditions that is said to have already prompted the removal of tens of thousands of trees.
Although the disease has been present in the country for decades, a succession of especially wet seasons has apparently caused it to spread far more quickly than usual.
With the actual number of infected trees reckoned to be in the hundreds of thousands, some in the industry have likened this year's outbreak to a smaller version of Psa-V, the bacterial infection that has blighted parts of New Zealand's kiwifruit crop.
According to a report in the Nelson Mail, three consecutive years of losses for many apple producers in parts of the Tasman District with high rainfall and winds, such as Riwaka and Lower Moutere, have now been compounded by the escalation of European canker, which although understood not to affect the quality of fruit, does cause yields to be lower in affected trees and currently has no cure.
'Its alarming march has been aided by grower complacency and poverty, the closer plantings of dwarf trees in many new orchards and infected seedlings from nurseries,' reported Peter Watson of the Nelson Mail.
'Deep in debt, growers lack the cashflow to devote to the extra spraying and relentless tree surgery required to keep the disease under some kind of control.
'Nor can the most vulnerable afford to replace trees they pull out, further reducing their income.'
Consultant Greg Dryden of Fruition Horticulture told the newspaper that years of low detection rates had caused some growers to become complacent.
'Hindsight is a wonderful thing but we should have been more rigorous in removing it,' he said. 'It's the Psa of Nelson. It's not quite as bad as Psa but if we get another bad autumn it has the potential to be.'
He addedL 'Growers are working hard to control it but at the moment we are behind the eight-ball.'
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