# MPI taken to court by apple and stonefruit growers

- Link: https://rd2.co.nz/mpi-taken-to-court-by-apple-and-stonefruit-growers/
- Published: 2018-08-09T23:34:50+00:00
- Author: Molly Callaghan

A group of apple and stonefruit growers is taking legal action against the Ministry
for Primary Industries in response to an order to destroy tens of thousands of plants
with claimed potential future losses of up to $1.5 billion.
 The group says “flawed”
decision-making by MPI over a paperwork issue may kill innovation in the sector 
and set it back by up to 15 years. The group has requested an urgent judicial review
of the MPI directive by the High Court at Wellington. Group spokesman Kerry Sixtus
of Pattullo’s Nurseries in Napier said five parties, including his business, were
challenging an MPI order last week for nurseries and orchards to contain or destroy
48,000 apple and stonefruit plants derived from plant material imported from a quarantine
centre at Washington State University. For more information ……….. https://www.nzherald.
co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12103912