Kiwifruit Vine Health (KVH) has asked the Ministry for Primary Industries to undertake an urgent review of the risk of fruit flies entering New Zealand from Australia.
KVH says the discovery of a single male Queensland fruit fly in Whangarei on 21 January and the spread of the pest into Victoria and New South Wales has it very worried about a rising likelihood of it crossing the border on this side of the Tasman.
Its chief executive Barry O'Neil says the two Australian states have given up on trying to eradicate the insect from their territory, with the state governments withdrawing funding on border controls.
He says KVH has written to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) asking it to undertake an urgent review of the risk that the worsening situation in Australia presents to New Zealand horticultural industries.
"It is appropriate that MPI does a full review of the conditions that we have in place on imports of fruit and vegetables and the measures that we need at our borders to keep fruit fly out of New Zealand."
Mr O'Neil says the ministry has told him it will have a preliminary report ready some time in February.
Meanwhile, Mr O'Neil says work on an agreement between the Government and the kiwifruit sector for handling a fruit fly incursion will probably be finalised by July.
So far, no further fruit fly have been found in the surveillance operation underway in Whangarei.
