Two of the black widow spiders were found in packets from New World in Wairoa – one by a teacher who was washing the grapes for a morning tea platter to give to children at an education centre on Friday, the Wairoa Star reported yesterday. “And that would wreak havoc for our wine growers”, Labor Party primary industries and biosecurity spokesperson Damien O’Connor said in a statement.
Advertisement
“I can not believe imported high risk fruit and vegetables is based exclusively on a visual inspection”.
“New Zealand First will be writing to the Auditor-General to ask for an investigation into the performance of MPI as both a regulator and enforcer”.
All the spiders so far discovered were poisonous, but MPI said they were not generally considered a serious danger to humans. Competitor Progressive Enterprises, which has the Countdown chain of supermarkets, says it has taken all Mexican grapes from the shelves of South Island stores. As a further precaution, on MPI’s instructions, today we removed Mexican grapes from sale from our North Island stores.
Strict controls were in place for the importation of grapes from Mexico and other countries and fumigation was required if spiders or other pests were found. MPI is working with retailers to ensure any spiders that may have entered New Zealand are identified and destroyed.
“We take this matter very seriously and we are investigating how this breach has occurred and taking measures to tighten up the system”, Mr Gould said.
He said grapes now on the way from Mexico would be fumigated or destroyed on arrival.
While not aggressive, the spider will bite instinctively when touched or pressed. “In the unlikely event that they find a spider, they should immediately bag the grapes (and spider/s) and seal them, and contact on our freephone hotline 0800 80 99 66”.
Advertisement
It was likely that some grapes from the affected shipments had already been sold and the ministry was advising people who had bought imported grapes in the past few weeks to be on the lookout. “Mexico’s exporting season for grapes has now finished for the year”, said Gould.
