A bacterial infection, which is posing out to be a serious threat to New Zealand-owned gold kiwifruit orchard in the Lazio region of Italy, may set off a review of latent risks the disease might pose to orchards back in New Zealand.

Opotiki Packing and Coolstorage Ltd. stated yesterday that a Newgold orchard in Italy, stretching over 84 hectares, and planted with gold kiwifruit, has been experiencing an ongoing epidemic of a bacterial disease.

Craig Thompson, Managing Director, Opac, said that this year vine canker has also occurred in green cultivars, which it usually does not.

Talking to NZPA, Mr. Thompson said, “You don't want to think the worst, but it's potentially a quite significant risk to the whole Italian industry”.

OPAC established a 50-50 joint venture with Salvi, which is one of the four companies under a contract with Zespri, to cultivate kiwifruit in Italy. By the year 2007, the venture was manufacturing 1 million trays of gold kiwifruit.

Scientists from New Zealand have stated that such infections surge during colder winters than usual combined with conditions like wetter springs than normal.