New Zealand steps up biosecurity checks on growing cruise sector

Overseas visitors arriving in New Zealand aboard cruise ships will come under greater scrutiny from detector dogs and luggage scanning as the country steps up vigilance against biosecurity risks.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said Wednesday that the Australian fruit fly -- which has already been the subject of one incursion this year -- posed a particular threat to the country's horticulture sector.

The cruise sector was expecting a record season this southern summer, with passenger numbers forecast to jump 33 percent to 267, 800, according to MPI.

"We've done a lot of work with the cruise ship industry to identify which vessels we want to target, based on their history, where they are coming from and who the passengers are," MPI head of intelligence and operations Stephanie Rowe said in a statement.

More biosecurity detector dog teams would be available this season to screen disembarking passengers for food and plants, and a portable x-ray machine at North Island ports to scan hand luggage coming off ships.

"If our officers intercept a lot of food or other risk materials from passengers coming ashore when a vessel first lands, we will consider greater intervention at subsequent ports," said Rowe.

One of the areas of focus would be working with cruise ship companies to ensure vessels carried stores that posed no biosecurity risk.

"Fruit fly host items like apples and bananas account for more than 75 percent of the biosecurity risk items our officers seize from cruise ship passengers coming ashore," she said.

"The other area is biosecurity awareness. We know, for example, that an announcement by the vessel's captain before passengers leave the ship is very effective at stopping food items coming ashore." Endi