Kiwifruit growers say 'no' to Zespri plan for more overseas growing

Zespri wanted to increase offshore growing of best seller SunGold. Photo / File

Kiwifruit growers have rejected a Zespri bid to expand overseas growing of the fruit.

Zespri wanted to expand plantings of its best seller SunGold variety in overseas countries excluding China and Chile by up to 10,000 additional hectares to support its strategy of marketing Zespri brand fruit to consumers 12 months of the year.

The global marketer, which is entitled by statute to be the main exporter of New Zealand kiwifruit, except to Australia, needed growers to vote 75 per cent in favour of the proposal.

A total of 67.8 per cent of growers and 71.7 per cent by fruit weight voted for the proposal.

A second proposal to allow the planting of up to 1000 additional hectares of new varieties also failed to get the required 75 per cent greenlight - but more narrowly.

This proposal was supported 70.2 per cent by producer vote count and 73.6 per cent by fruit weight count.

It is the second producer vote in recent times to have gone against Zespri leaders.

A previous scheme to try to stem rogue growing of the SunGold variety in China by getting alongside unauthorised growers failed to win grower approval.

Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson said the result was disappointing.

"We did receive a lot of feedback during the discussions on the proposal. This included the need to tackle New Zealand fruit quality concerns and the cost of licence.

"One of the key challenges was from growers who do not own shares who did not believe that an increase in offshore plantings delivered enough benefits for non-shareholders. We will continue to work with growers on these issues," he said.

Only 48 per cent of the 2700 or so growers who supply Zespri are shareholders.

Mathieson said Zespri's offshore partners remained a critical part of the industry.

"Zespri will continue to focus on maximising production and achieving the best outcome for the New Zealand industry and our partners from the existing Zespri Global Supply (ZGS) production base of 5000 hectares of Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit. It is estimated that ZGS growers will supply between 21 and 22 million trays of Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit this year and based on existing plantings that will increase to 45.5 million trays by 2029."

For new varieties, planting was restricted to the 1000 hectares approved in a 2019 producer vote. Zespri would work to continue procuring green kiwifruit from Northern Hemisphere growing partners.