Turners & Growers vows to continue Zespri battle

Turners & Growers chairman Tony Gibbs says it won't be backing down on its push to deregulate the kiwifruit industry, despite opposition by Zespri and the growers' representative body.

The listed fruit producer came out fighting on Monday with a position paper to the Government calling for Zespri's monopoly position to be removed, citing abuses of market power and potential loss of export and research and development dollars if it is allowed to continue.

Zespri, which controls the export of all New Zealand kiwifruit to countries other than Australia, has said deregulation was not on the agenda and growers have backed the exporter.

Yesterday Gibbs was not put off by the opposition. "We are not going away and we are going to win."

Gibbs said some growers had already contacted him in support of the deregulation call. "I have had lots of growers contact me who are absolutely fed up to their back teeth with what Zespri are doing."

Gibbs said reports from Zespri showed 34 per cent of green kiwifruit growers would make a loss this year.

He believed growers would change their minds once they had read the position statement and economic report which had been sent to the Government.

"I believe when the thinking growers have digested what it contains their attitude will start to change. They will be appalled."

Gibbs said he had spent the past two weeks talking to political leaders on the issue and Turners & Growers staff would now be talking to growers over the next couple of weeks.

Zespri International won its single-desk exporting status in 1999 when the Kiwifruit industry was restructured. It earns over a billion dollars a year in export revenue and is widely regarded as our most successful fruit exporter.