New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri expects only a fraction of its China-bound exports will be affected by a decision to suspend shipments to the country.

The move stems from the detection of the bacterium Neofabraea actinidia in two shipments last month and a subsequent tightening of Chinese controls.

Stuff.co.nz reported Zespri had decided to temporarily suspend exports to China, most likely for around a week.

"We are working with NZ kiwifruit suppliers and MPI to develop additional pre-shipping measures in response to AQSIQ's risk notification issued after the find of the fungus Neofabraea actinidiae through routine testing on four containers of fruit which arrived at Tianjin Port on 8 June," a spokeswoman told the publication.

"Zespri's rigorous quality systems for checking and rechecking our fruit means this affects only a tiny fraction of the 135 million trays we're shipping this season," she was quoted as saying.

"We had forecast sales of another 8 million trays of kiwifruit to China this season, with around 1 million trays of this now being reallocated to other markets."

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