HortNews
	Govt Rules Out Banning Grape Imports

WELLINGTON 19/10/2001 - The Government today rejected calls to ban the importation of Californian grapes following the discovery of a black widow spider in Auckland, the third such find in as many months.

Associate Biosecurity Minister Marian Hobbs told Parliament that it was suggested after the second find that trade might be suspended if another black widow was found and it was found biosecurity requirements had not been followed.

"The most recent find of a black widow spider does not fall into this category. The correct biosecurity requirements were being followed.

"Unless you're going to completely wipe out the grapes concerned with chemicals, you will not be able to ensure that absolutely no black widow spiders come forward inside the grapes."However, environmental lobby group Forest and Bird said immediate action was needed to stop the country's biosecurity being repeatedly breached.

Forest and Bird said the discovery of the spider and Asian tiger mosquitoes in imported used vehicles were repeat incidents that posed a risk to human and environmental health and needed to stop.

They also called for the public to comment on a biosecurity strategy the Government was developing.

"The message we need to send... is that they have to start getting the basics right - if something goes wrong, acknowledge the mistake and prevent it happening again," biosecurity awareness officer Karli Thomas said.

The group wants a review of the Used Vehicle Import Health Standard (UVIHS), and supported the Green Party's call for an immediate ban on importing the Californian grapes.

However, black widow spiders were not a biosecurity risk, Ms Hobbs said. "It is something that people find unpleasant."

But Ms Thomas said the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) was not learning from its mistakes and was allowing the same pests to arrive in the same goods repeatedly.

"Biosecurity should be a system of continual review and improvement, but MAF is not taking that approach," Ms Thomas said.

Last year MAF released a draft Import Health Standard for used vehicles to be cleaned offshore but later reneged and then issued a statement virtually unchanged from the previous weak approach, she said.