Greenhouse good news for fruit and vegetable growers

GREENHOUSE GOOD NEWS

FOR FRUIT AND VEGETABLE GROWERS

Supplied

Rendered artist’s image of the completed PEQ facility

Construction of a new Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility for biosecurity plant health started in March this year with a completion date of April 2023.

The new facility will have twelve Level 3B greenhouses and is part of a flagship programme for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). Level 3B greenhouses are designed to house high-risk and high-value imported germplasm (e.g., Prunus, Malus, Vitis) to ensure it is free from unwanted plant pathogens before the material is released to the country. The facility doubles MPI’s current capacity for processing important plant germplasm and increases the ability to screen, test and protect export crops from pests and diseases that could threaten the fruit and vegetable industry.

The PEQ facility will provide industry with greater ability to import new cultivars to support their exports

Over the past few years, demand for PEQ services has increased. As MPI is the only Level 3B PEQ operator in the country, this has resulted in an increased wait to bring plant material into Aotearoa-New Zealand. The PEQ facility will provide industry with greater ability to import new cultivars to support their exports and bridge the demand until a new Plant Health and Environment facility is constructed on an adjacent site in Mt Albert, Auckland. This proposed new facility will help safeguard New Zealand’s horticulture industry and support crucial export markets by: • Allowing MPI to test a higher number of samples that are sent in with suspected exotic pests or diseases (such as bacterial canker in kiwifruit, fruit flies or plum pox virus). • Providing more resources for research and development into these testing methods. • Growing surveillance programmes that protect the primary industries and environment and reassure trading partners that New Zealand does not have certain diseases.

A detailed business case for the new facility will be delivered to Cabinet for consideration later this year. Once approved, the new facility will help protect the environment and ecosystem and accelerate the economic potential of the primary sector to boost financial recovery post Covid-19. Check out the construction photos of the Interim Post Entry Quarantine (IPEQ) facility below the artist rendering of the new facility.