New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is investigating the discovery of a male Queensland fruit fly in Auckland on 16 February.
A 1.5km exclusion zone has been mapped around the suburb of Grey Lynn, where the fruit fly was found in a fruit fly trap, with restrictions placed on the movement of fruit and vegetables for the coming weeks.
“The Queensland fruit fly has been detected five times before in northern New Zealand – in Whangarei and in Auckland. In all cases MPI carried out thorough surveillance and no further flies were found,” said MPI chief operations officer Andrew Coleman. “This insect, if established here, could have serious consequences for New Zealand’s horticultural industry. It can damage a wide range of fruit and vegetables and could lead to restrictions on trade in some of our horticultural exports.”
Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) has singled out Australia’s pest control for the detection of fruit fly, stating that it could only have entered New Zealand via plane passenger or imported fruit consignment from Australia or the Pacific islands.
“Australia’s biosecurity protection within its own state borders is seriously breaking down,” said HortNZ president Julian Raine in a press release calling for the re-instatement of mandatory x-rays of all passenger bags arriving in New Zealand.
“Reinstating the 100 per cent x-ray of passenger bags coming from across the Tasman would go a long way towards helping us improve our protection and lower this risk.It is not acceptable to go through this drama every summer. New Zealand horticulture deserves better protection,' said Raine.
