The country's largest kiwifruit supply company, Seeka, says the impact of the bacterial disease PSA on its packhouse operations in the 2011 season was minimal, but the company believes it could be worse next year.
Chief executive Michael Franks says the company lost about 300,000 trays of kiwifruit to the disease but still handled 26 million trays.
He says the fact that there is as yet no effective chemical control means what happens next year is anyone's guess.
Mr Franks says that, with the situation fluid and changing every day, the company understands it is likely to lose some crop and so is taking action to protect the business.
This included looking at limiting expenditure, including capital spending, and "sensibly thinking about staff replacements".
He says, however, final decisions have yet to be made.
In the meantime, Seeka was updating the market regularly with statistics so that investors know what is happening.
Mr Franks says Seeka is working with another kiwfruit company, East Pack, to find a control for PSA and expects to have results from field trials of four chemical compounds by the end of this week.
