This week Summerfruit New Zealand attended a workshop to discuss ways of improving MPI’s plant imports system. The workshop was facilitated by the Plant Market Access Council (PMAC) with the participation of MPI officials and a wide range of industry representatives.
It was agreed that the current scheme is not working for many industries and a major review of the system is required in order to make the plant import pathway more efficient for everyone. MPI Director General, Ray Smith, emphasised the need to balance economic prosperity with biosecurity to ensure the success of our primary industries. The summerfruit industry relies heavily on ongoing access to new varieties and keeping this pathway open is an important part of maintaining our competitive advantage in an increasingly challenging global environment.
The first half of the meeting was focused on establishing a common understanding of the current situation. This included presentations from MPI and industry parties describing the current system, its challenges and expectations with regards to importing plant materials. This was followed by sessions identifying the urgent issues affecting industries, which were then included as part of a recovery plan to be addressed in the short term. We also discussed the need for establishing a strategic project in the long term in order to find adequate solutions that could improve the overall system.
In response to this, MPI and some industry representatives have offered their active support to address the system’s recovery plan as a first step in improving the plant imports pathway.