The president of Horticulture New Zealand is disappointed the Government's budget announcement did not include any moves to address 'lax border security”.

Andrew Fenton says the Budget does not address New Zealand's border security issues, which is putting the country's economy and primary industries at risk.

The organisation, representing growers, is disappointed with the Government's failure to take biosecurity seriously in the Budget, despite the recent brush with the potentially disastrous Queensland fruit fly, he says.

'We are extremely disappointed that the Government has failed to prioritise biosecurity and is failing to keep New Zealand's borders safe.

'Any cost cutting at the border is short-sighted. It risks devastating our primary industries and tourism for years to come.

'The Government's short-sighted ‘direct exit' policy has allowed 2.1 million passengers to enter New Zealand unchecked in the last 18 months. That's unacceptable to horticulture.

'For the last eight months, no sniffer dogs have been at Wellington airport and on average in excess of 50 international flights land there every week.

'The recent Queensland fruit fly scare shows just how vulnerable our borders are. The Government's lax border security is putting New Zealand's economy and Primary Industry at unnecessary risk.

'HortNZ and our 6000 growers will not stand for biosecurity to be ignored by government, any longer. We want action and we want it now before it's too late,” says Andrew.

Meanwhile bio-security controls around Avondale in Auckland may be lifted today if no more fruit flies are found.

The large operation by the Ministry for Primary Industries was sparked by the discovery of a single male fruit fly in a trap on May 8 and now close to 1500 traps are set in a 10km zone surrounding the controlled area which is part of the routine fruit fly surveillance programme.

A total of 3176 kilograms of fruit from the fruit collection's bins has so far been removed for destruction. However, no new flies have been found and MPI says the operation may be scaled down.