Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton today welcomed Indonesia's decision to lift immediately long-standing restrictions on New Zealand kiwifruit and other fresh fruit imports.

Mr Sutton said the Indonesian Government had advised it no longer required New Zealand kiwifruit and other fresh fruit to undergo "cold storage treatment" in order to enter Indonesia.

"This will reduce costs for New Zealand fruit exporters and brings Indonesia in line with New Zealand's other trading partners."

Mr Sutton said he was pleased the longstanding problem, which he had discussed with the Indonesian Minister of Agriculture in Christchurch last month, had finally been resolved.

"The New Zealand Government has been working for some years, bilaterally and through the WTO, to encourage Indonesia to lift these restrictions. Indonesia's positive response will help New Zealand producers of kiwifruit and other fresh fruit to develop more fully Indonesia's great potential as an export market."

Indonesia and some other countries imposed the cold storage treatment requirement over five years ago in response to the detection by New Zealand authorities of two Mediterranean fruitfly in Auckland in May 1996.

New Zealand quickly re-established its fruitfly free status through an extensive eradication and detection programme. Other countries subsequently removed related quarantine restrictions imposed on New Zealand fruit, with Indonesia being the last to do so.

New Zealand kiwifruit exports to Indonesia totalled $400,000 in the year ending March 2001. Indonesia is New Zealand's 13th largest export market. Total exports to Indonesia increased by 94% to $438 million in the year ending December 2000.

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