Fellow Chartered Accountant Trudi Ballantyne. Source: Supplied. It was an agribusiness disaster of epic proportions, and the humble kiwifruit was at the heart of it. In 2010, a kiwifruit vine-eating disease called Psa quietly crept through the orchards of New Zealand’s Te Puke region. Just like that, a billion-dollar industry was at a standstill and more than 3,000 growers were in crisis — until a fellow Chartered Accountant by the name of Trudi Ballantyne stepped in with an innovative solution. No choice but to start over On the frontlines of the kiwi catastrophe, the growers learned that the only way to control the spread of Psa was to cut out their vines. Having to cut out the vines would mean ‘greenfielding’ — a five year process whereby mature vines are removed and replaced with new plantings. This loss of their livelihoods was a devastating prospect.