TECHNICAL
Supporting summerfruit grower agchem choices By Richard Mills : Summerfruit NZ market support In a previous life, I got the chemicals out of the shed, usually after a discussion with my spray rep, added them to the tank and away I went. When I moved to research and development work, there was a bit more involved as the products sometimes needed to be imported into New Zealand. But generally, things weren’t too complicated as there were other people taking care of the details.
Once compiled, the information is taken to our Export Reference Group, confirmed or amended and uploaded onto the Summerfruit NZ portal. A printed copy of the export apricot and cherry MRL and PHI charts are sent to export growers. This year, for the first time, a printed copy of the New Zealand Market PHI chart has been sent to all summerfruit growers.
At an industry body level, such as Summerfruit NZ, there are many more aspects to consider.
Compliance To support the regulations, there is a suite of auditing and compliance required – some of it dictated by the Export Marketing Strategy. For example, the Residue Monitoring Scheme requires the random sampling of export-ready fruit to check for compliance with MRL requirements. AsureQuality manages the process for Summerfruit NZ, and in turn, we are audited by SGS. Also, growers may need to register for the Summerfruit Official Assurance Programmes (OAPs) which ensure that products for export meet the agreed phytosanitary protocol of an importing country by for example requiring inspection for the presence of certain insects (and appropriate control measures such as fumigation) before fruit is shipped.
Products New agrichemical products are designed, researched and tested by the manufacturers and once ready, approval is sought through the Ministry for Primary Industries to register the product under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act. If approved, the retailers can sell the new products to growers and do their own field testing as necessary. Products are sold on-label where there is a claim but can also be used legally off-label so long as the New Zealand Maximum Residue Limit (MRL), or that of any importing country, is not exceeded. By knowing the appropriate pre-harvest interval (PHI) we can be sure that the MRL will not be exceeded. To know the PHI requires research. For smaller product groups such as Summerfruit NZ, chemical companies are not taking on this research, therefore the work must be carried out by ourselves. Regulation Summerfruit NZ has an Export Marketing Strategy under the NZ Horticulture Export Authority enabling summerfruit to be exported. Part of the strategy requires an annual update of the MRL and PHI information, which was done this year with help from Market Access Solutionz, AsureQuality and Fruition Horticulture. This is the information that forms the ‘rules’ from which AsureQuality can produce the Harvest Clearance Certificates from submitted spray diaries. Other spray diaries apart from CropSure can be used, but they must be compatible with CropSure otherwise a manual handling fee will be incurred. This same information will form part of the agrichemical retailers’ spray wall charts and help manufacturers decide where to focus their attention. These charts will show where there are changes to products, where products are withdrawn, and where a shortened PHI is highlighted. 60
The ORCHARDIST : NOVEMBER 2021
While the agrichemical section of NZGAP (Good Agricultural Practice) and GlobalG.A.P. is just a part of the overall audit, it in effect validates our ongoing ability to apply agrichemical sprays to trees. Spray diaries and the subsequent Harvest Clearance Certificates are issued to growers and packhouses. Spray diaries are collected and collated. From these records we can monitor changes over time and respond to queries such as the recent call for information on glyphosate use. Extension services Holding the information is all well and good, but we also need to use a variety of means to communicate any changes to the wider industry. These include Market Access Solutionz and AsureQuality presenting technical information, Summerfruit NZ producing its SummerGreen manual and holding SummerGreen meetings and communicating changes in conference presentations and through the Prunings newsletter. Another key method is via retail representatives who need to keep up to date to ensure the correct information is passed on to those that need it.
