Growers taking MPI to court

NAPIER: A group of apple and stonefruit growers is taking legal action against the Ministry for Primary Industries in response to an order to destroy tens of thousands of plants, which could cost the sector up to $1.5 billion over 10 years.

The group says ‘‘flawed’’ decisionmaking by MPI over a paperwork issue may kill innovation in the sector and set it back by up to 15 years.

The group has requested an urgent judicial review of the MPI directive by the High Court at Wellington.

Group spokesman Kerry Sixtus said five parties were challenging an MPI order last week for nurseries and orchards to contain or destroy 48,000 apple and stonefruit plants derived from plant material imported from a quarantine centre at Washington State University.

The centre had been providing plant material to New Zealand since the 1980s and was the main source of plant material and plant varieties for New Zealand’s stonefruit orchards, Mr Sixtus said.

The MPI directive included original plant materials imported between 2012 and 2017 and also extended to budwood and propagated materials derived from the original plants, he said.

The order affects 32 orchardists, nurseries, importers and intellectual property companies in Hawke’s Bay, Waikato, Nelson and Central Otago.

Apple exports earned about $700 million this year and summerfruit exports returned about $77 million. This excludes domestic sales.

New Zealand Institute of Economic Research advice to the group projects that losses over 10 years, based on current varieties, would be about $300 million to $550 million. AgFirst has valued the potential loss at up to $1.5 billion.

The growers are seeking to overturn the MPI decision or at least an extension of timeframes in order for the ministry to gather and consider ‘‘all relevant facts’’.

‘‘As MPI representatives have stated, the MPI directive is based on a paperwork issue. MPI has not provided any evidence of an actual biosecurity risk presented by the relevant plant material,’’ the group said in a statement. — NZME