Biosecurity officials mystified by lone Whangarei fruit fly, won’t change port protocols
By Olivia Bascand
Feb. 10 (BusinessDesk) – Biosecurity officials say they can’t explain the appearance of a single male Queensland fruit
fly caught in Whangarei, since no produce is imported directly through the city’s port.
Biosecurity officials on Saturday ended a two-week trapping programme without finding any more of the flies, which pose
a major threat to New Zealand’s $1.5 billion-a-year fruit export industry.
“We still don’t know how it got here,” Lesley Patston, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Primary Industries. “It could
have come from Australia or somewhere in the Pacific Islands.”
The bactrocera tryoni fly found in Whangarei was only the fourth ever caught in New Zealand and in each instance there
has been no sign that the destructive pest has got established.
In its native Australia, the fly is regarded as the most serious insect pest for fruit and vegetable crops including
avocado, citrus, feijoa, grape, peppers, persimmon, pipfruit and stonefruit. Fruit is New Zealand’s fifth largest export
commodity.
Because the fly must have entered the country elsewhere, no changes would be made to procedures at Whangarei’s port,
Patston said.
Labour’s agriculture spokesman Damien O'Connor said that the Queensland fruit fly is the horticultural equivalent of
Foot and Mouth disease.
(BusinessDesk)