Flower Growers Press Release gets results

A press release sent out by the NZFGA about bio security, following the investigation into how the kiwifruit disease Psa came into the country, has gained considerable traction in the media.

Morning Report introduced the news item by saying that “Flower growers are the latest group demanding border controls be tightened”, and that while Psa isn’t a threat to the flower industry, there are similar inconsistencies around how the risk of importing cut flowers and foliage is assessed.  

“The risk assessment process obviously needs some fine-tuning, and we would like them to involve the industry, or each of the industries I guess, in the process much more in depth than they have in the past, “ Mr Schuurman said on the programme.

Morning Report also interviewed the chairman of NZ Pork Ian Carter who raised his industry’s fears about failings in the MPI following the Psa report, and concerns about raw pork products entering the country.

“There are some serious gaps in some of the sciences being used in the past. We’ve got some world respected scientists at Massey University within the shores that have been leading the world in some of the pig sciences. We’ve used these people and they have given us enough information to say that it’s too great a concern to back off on this one.” 

The Morning Report programme concluded by saying that MPI spokesman Andrew Coleman says it is happy to meet with the Flower Growers’ Association and it has already signed up several other industry bodies to talk about improvements to its systems.

The NZFGA press release was also reported on internet news sites.