Kiwifruit sector's big night out

The occasion was to celebrate major milestones and achievements in the history of their sector: the 30th anniversary of the formation of the NZ Kiwifruit Growers group (NZKGI), the 35th anniversary of the single desk structure which underpins industry success and the 25th anniversary of Zespri's commercial operations.

The evening featured plenty of networking time for growers and others to mix and mingle and renew past friendships. On display were photographs and memorabilia of the past and for many it was a chance to talk about the battles and challenges that the industry has faced over the years.

Paul Jones, a grower for 35 years and now a Zespri director, was on the NZKGI board for 19 years and has witnessed many of the changes that have taken place. He says NZKGI has helped a lot to get the right structures in place in the sector.

"It fulfils a very good role as both a watchdog and advocate for the industry and Zespri uses NZKGI as a sounding board for some of its decision making," he says.

One of the early executives in the industry was Dr Don Brash, later to become the governor of the Reserve Bank. At one stage he was CEO of the Kiwifruit Authority.

"It's an extraordinary sensation to be here 42 years since I became involved in the kiwifruit authority industry. In my first year, NZ exported 4.6 million trays of green kiwifruit, now its 50 times that, both green and gold, and it's great to be here," he says.

NZKGI chief executive Colin Bond described the evening as momentous in a lot of respects. He says the industry has a great structure and has overcome many challenges because the people came together in a crisis.

"A wonderful success story" is how HortNZ's chair Dr Barry O'Neil described the kiwifruit sector. He says other sectors within NZ should work to emulate it and get similar sucess in their sectors.

"But we should always remember all those who worked so hard 35 years plus ago to create the wonderful industry we have here today," he says.

The chair of the Māori kiwifruit growers, Anaru Timutimu, says his people have been in the industry for 40 years and says the returns from kiwifruit to the Māori community are better than any of the other land-based sectors. He says they provide about 10% of all the kiwifruit grown in NZ.

"It's an amazing business for us and it provides a lot of opportunity for Māori, not just inside but also outside the orchard gate. It also allows a lot of our people to come home and work and build a career in the sector, which is good," he says.

Zespri chairman Nathan Flowerday praised NZKGI saying it has ensured the voice of the NZ grower is heard strongly whether it be be by Zespri, the Government or other industry stakeholders. In his keynote speech, NZKGI chairman Mark Mayston emphasised that it was growers' decision to prioritise the greater good over self-interest that birthed the revolutionary single desk concept.

"Growers must stay united because if we let selfish interests take over, we risk diluting the value of our industry and the future of generations to come," he says.

From Past To Present

A highlight of the evening was panel discussion featuring three pioneering growers, Paul Heywood, John Palmer and Hendrik Pieters who gave an amazing insight into the problems they faced trying to get unity within the sector that ultimately led to the formation of NZKGI.

Pieters said in the early days NZ had something like 11 companies marketing kiwifruit and they were being picked off by wholesalers and supermarkets in Europe, causing prices to fall.

He says some of the older growers had deals with exporters, and new entrants to the market like himself were left on the outer.

“We saw what the Apple and Pear Board were doing as the single seller of apples and thought that this was a better way to go,” he says.

Eventually, after much turmoil, the single desk Kiwifruit Marketing Board was set up with the power to buy and sell all kiwifruit. This led to the brand Zespri being introduced 25 years ago. But for Pieters and other growers, the battles were not over and there was great confusion as to who represented kiwifruit growers, with multiple organisations laying claim to this.

“We had several organisations that were infiltrating growers, government departments, because they wanted to maintain their influence on what was going on.

“So, the issue for NZKGI was [a] wide spectrum of growers who had diverse allegiances to different political and commercial beliefs and what we had to do was to bring all these groups to together. Government made it clear that if we are going to have a single desk operator, we needed a group who could talk on behalf of all growers,” he says.

Pieters says after almost two years of wrangling, the various parties buried their differences and NZKGI emerged as an advocacy group for the whole industry and a watchdog on the activities of Zespri. But according to Pieters, the battle still goes on with different interest groups coming into the industry and some having invested a lot of money, effectively put NZKGI on notice.

“The challenge for NZKGI today is the same as it was 30 years ago. We have to make sure we are bringing all those disparate groups together and there is not division in the ranks,” he says.