A Northland kiwifruit orchard has had to dump about $240,000 worth of produce following what police suspect was a deliberate poisoning. Two orchard sites in Kerikeri were sprayed with Calypso, an insecticide used on fruit crops to pests back in March or April 2016, police said.
As a result, about 30,000 trays of Kiwi Gold kiwifruit had to be thrown out.
New Zealand exported $1.67b of kiwifruit in the year ending June 2016.
Police went public about the case on Friday, posting an alert to the Northland Police Facebook page. They said they were "particularly interested" in a reported sighting of two people dressed in white overalls and wearing backpack spray units.
