Avocado war Between New Zealand and Australia

Australia and New Zealand are involved in an angry exchange of words - over avocados. The Australian avocado industry has criticised the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, questioning its competence at detecting diseases in the fruit. And New Zealand growers have in turn accused their Australian counterparts of dirty tricks to restrict imports and protect their own growers. The row comes as Biosecurity Australia announced that restrictions on New Zealand avocado imports will be relaxed after it was found avocado scab is not present here and never has been. It introduced a number of controls on New Zealand imports at the end of last year, following initial reports of scab being present in New Zealand. Biosecurity Australia said initial reports of avocado scab were a misdiagnosis by New Zealand and that there was no evidence the disease was ever present in New Zealand. But Avocados Australia said yesterday it was not in a position to guarantee that New Zealand was free of the disease.