The wide-ranging Kiwifruit Industry Strategy Project (KISP) has made good progress and is on target to produce findings for a planned growers' referendum in November this year, says the independent chairman of the process.
Neil Richardson said KISP has seen overwhelming support for retaining the current single point entry (SPE) model, under which grower-owned and Tauranga-based Zespri maintains control of marketing the bulk of New Zealand kiwifruit exports.
"Basically, the responses we've seen to date can be divided up into those who have a self-interest in moving away from SPE, those who have a beef about specific aspects of SPE, and the vast majority who support the principle of the current industry structure," Mr Richardson, who is an experienced businessman and academic, said.
"We found a small number of people who create a lot of noise," he said. "My role is to listen to and understand the reasons for that noise, because there is a lot of learning in it."
Mr Richardson said that while the majority of the 400 responses in the initial round of submissions had offered "unqualified" support for the current system, there was also a small percentage of submissions that supported the system, but had offered suggestions for improving various aspects. KISP, launched last September, is working through the process with seven industry sub-groups.