Mike Chapman NZKGI Chief Executive

On February 23, 2016, a resident of Australia was fined a total of $3000 in the New Zealand courts having pleaded guilty to possessing unauthorised goods and providing a false statement to a quarantine officer.  

The woman was a yacht skipper who had hidden fruit, vegetables and meat in her vessel instead of declaring them to a quarantine officer in Opua, Bay of Islands, in November 2014. She had just arrived from Fiji.  

During a search of the vessel a Ministry for Primary Industries’ quarantine officer found an assortment of fresh items hidden in different compartments – eggs, oranges, apples, tomatoes, pumpkin, pineapple, onions, kumara, ginger, garlic, spring onions, meat patties, ham, eggplant, bok choy, cabbage, cucumber, capsicum and lettuce.

This is not the first time MPI has found fresh produce in yachts arriving from the Pacific. A French skipper was convicted and fined $3000 last year for similar offences after deliberately hiding risk goods when her vessel was inspected in Opua after arriving from New Caledonia in November 2014.  

The time of year for both incidents is considered high risk for fruit flies potentially entering New Zealand on fruit and successfully establishing a population.

All New Zealand fruit growers remember the two fruit fly finds in the environs of the Whangarei yacht basin on January 21 and April 1, 2014. These fruit flies likely came from yachts arriving from the Pacific.  

Millions of dollars
The cost of responding to these finds was many millions of dollars. In all these cases we can be grateful MPI has detected the undeclared fruit and trapped the fruit flies before the situation escalates and a breeding population of fruit flies establishes.

Full marks to MPI. If a breeding population was to establish itself our fruit exports would be severely restricted and growers would lose millions of dollars in return. In short, our billion-dollar fruit industries would be put at risk.

The latest yachtie to be convicted said she had not shown the MPI quarantine officer all of her fruit and vegetables as she had intended to eat them on-board her boat and didn’t want to waste them. Both yachties wilfully deceived the quarantine officers. They knew the rules and chose to break them for their own self-interest.

These cases show the biosecurity system working effectively, detecting fresh fruit and vegetables before they pose a serious financial risk to New Zealand. However, the fact these visitors are being caught knowingly cheating shows that a strong and clear message needs to be sent to all yachties.

I do not think a $3000 fine sends that message. Especially after two responses to fruit fly in Whangarei. Clearly, the message has not gotten through yet, as people continue to bring in undeclared and hidden fresh fruit and vegetables.

Prison sentence
The maximum fine for bringing in hidden fresh produce is $100,000 and there is the ability to impose imprisonment.  

A significant fine or a short period behind bars would send the message to the yachties of the Pacific.

We need the Government and the courts to treat biosecurity as seriously as they do fishing offences, where a person’s boat can be seized. Now that would send a message.  

This is what we in horticulture need to protect our billion-dollar industries. A biosecurity system that not only detects offenders, but also sends them an appropriate message through the courts when they flagrantly breach our biosecurity laws.

The views expressed are those of the author.