Clock ticking for apple and stonefruit directives

Following a meeting last Friday, the first and only meeting since the High Court sent this group of orchardists and nursery owners and MPI back to the drawing board, there has been some limited communication from MPI, according to affected apple and stonefruit industry members.

The judge instructed MPI to engage with the affected industry members to seek alternative directives for the management of over 48,000 apple and stonefruit plants.

According to Kerry Sixtus of Pattullo’s Nurseries, “MPI recently shared a draft testing plan with us which is a critical element of how we propose to manage the plants that are in containment, and sets the scene for how long it may take for these plants to be released. Until we have clarity on the testing plan, we are unable to prepare for any commercial activity.

“At first glance, the proposed testing plan does not incorporate critical actions that were agreed with the MPI representatives at the meeting on Friday. We are working on our response at the moment, and hope to engage again with MPI next week.

“There has been no discussion about the revised directives with MPI. We can only remain optimistic that MPI will take on board the court order and narrow the original directives,” says Sixtus.