The New Zealand hop industry is in the enviable position of having a low pest and disease environment.
Its isolated geographic location combined with strict border controls and a hop plant breeding programme targeting pest and disease resistant varieties has proven to be a real winner.
Our farms never use fungicides, as we do not have the likes of Downy mildew nor Powdery mildew present in our hop gardens.
We endeavour to control the one hop plant pest we do have - a mite that can reduce hop yields - through biological means, in order to keep the use of pesticides to an absolute minimum.
We use sheep to control weeds in our hop gardens, which reduces the need to spray for weeds.
Our hop products comply with stringent Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) around the world, but for us this is just the beginning as we look to go above and beyond what is achievable elsewhere.