sharedelight, I would have to disagree with your comment, ARE YOU A KIWI ? My main concern with New Zealand and the ROW in respect to apples is the bacterial pathogen disease FIREBLIGHT. Australian growers have spent decades and millions of dollars trying to keep NZ apples out of this Country as we are one of the very few countries in the World that do not have this disease. Regretably earlier this year, Australia lost it's case, the defence utilised was that the pathogen could be brought into this Country on imported apples. The disease itself, kills blossoms, shoots, limbs and trees if not treated . My earlier post indicated that Australian growers use absolutely minimal sprays, this together with extremely tough regulatory controls ensures that any witholding periods are strictly adhered to, also in numerous cases biological control utilising ' good bugs ' & constant monitoring requires no pesticide sprays. Apart from looking after one's own backyard, a little research into ' fireblight ' may be enough to ensure that you look for the Ausralian MADE label !
