Grower takes a hit
A Kerikeri kiwifruit grower is offering a $50,000 reward leading to charges being laid after extensive damage was done to his crops.
Kerry Farrand estimates the damage has resulted in a loss of $217,000 to his company.
Farrand owns four orchards in the area and says 2.26 hectares of these were sprayed with an insecticide that meant the crop was unsuitable for harvest.
Kerikeri police are currently investigating the matter.
Under the Crimes Amendment Act 2003 a person is liable for a prison term of up to 10 years for contaminating food, crops or other products.
‘‘My livelihood is at stake, I am not going to leave any stone unturned until I can prove who did this,’’ Farrand says.
Costs including labour and fertilisation are paid throughout the season and recouped by the return from selling the crop, Farrand says.
‘‘It is fairly gut wrenching to get to the end of a 12 month season and not being able to harvest a fruit crop at the end of it.’’
Farrand supplies the fruit crop to Zespri, the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit.
Tests are carried out by Zespri to determine that fruit has a safe amount of chemical residue no later than a month prior to harvest.
After receiving news of the positive reading at the end of April, Farrand says at first he thought the laboratory had made a mistake. But after another block tested positive he understood the readings were due to an act of foul play.
He says there is a small window to pick the fruit at its highest quality and because of this the fruit would go soft before they reached safe levels of residue.
Normal factors that could impact kiwifruit growers include PSA (a bacterial disease), hail and storms, and all are environmental factors that you can manage, Farrand says.
‘‘You are aware of all those things, you have some control over your drainage as kiwifruit don’t like wet ground, storms, by putting up artificial shelter to minimise the damage, but you cannot control sabotage.’’