Dan Mathieson, Zespri CEO will take a top job in the US berry fruit sector later in the year. Photo Alan Gibson.
The collective structure of New Zealand’s multibillion-dollar kiwifruit industry can breed in-house tensions but also creates great strength in tough times and a world-beating uniqueness, outgoing Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says.
“We have a wonderful industry. Certainly there are tensions within the industry and when we have a challenge we have to come together and that often brings different perspectives on how to go forward and creates robust debate,“ says the Singapore-based Kiwi who will head to a top job at US berry heavyweight Driscoll’s after this year’s kiwifruit export season.
Zespri, which in FY23 posted just under $4 billion in global kiwifruit sales, has the statutory right to export all New Zealand kiwifruit, except to Australia. Known as a “single desk” seller, the grower-owned company leads an industry composed of a growers/orchard sector, a post-harvest sector and the Zespri global marketing/exporting function.
Occasional grumbles from within the grower and post-harvest sector suggest the arrangement doesn’t always make for one big happy family.
Mathieson, who has worked in marketing and sales at Zespri for 21 years, the past seven as CEO, is the first to say that sometimes there are “tensions”; never more so than in the past two years when the industry experienced serious export fruit quality issues, mainly due to extreme weather events compounded by a Covid-driven labour shortage and supply chain issues.
Fruit quality losses and issues cost Zespri $534 million in FY23, meaning it had half a billion dollars less to return to New Zealand growers. The New Zealand business made a loss of $22.1m in 2022-23 versus the $24.9m profit of the previous season. The issue also led to a smaller 2023 season crop available for export.
But just as they did in 2010 when the bacterial vine disease PSA devastated the gold fruit industry, the trio of sectors have pulled together to get New Zealand’s top horticulture export back on track and preparing for a bumper 2024 season and a resumed growth trajectory.
While Mathieson says there is “still work to do” on the quality issue, there is “something special” about the industry’s resilience.
“I think it’s the collective nature of it - we’re all in it together. Everyone has roles and responsibilities and they’re very clearly defined.
“There are tensions of course between various sectors of our interdependent structure but when we see big challenges, we come together and find solutions, and when we see opportunities we come together.
“The collective strength is an enormous benefit in the fruit produce world when you’re always coming up against challenge and uncertainty and you have to respond.”
As future president of Driscoll’s Americas, Mathieson will be heading to a new home in California. The family-owned global company is headquartered in berry growing capital Watsonville. He will replace Soren Bjorn, who in January became Driscoll’s chief executive.
Driscolls’ foundation business 100 years ago was strawberry growing and sales, but its global portfolio extends now to blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.
Mathieson says his future region of responsibility, the Americas, accounts for around US$4b ($6.5b) or 80 per cent of Driscoll’s total annual global sales. The company has more than 30 per cent share of the branded retail berry market in North America, the area he will mainly focus on to grow sales.
Mathieson says he wasn’t really thinking about leaving Zespri and dismisses the popular notion that seven years is time for a CEO to move on. (Also exiting this year is Zespri chairman Bruce Cameron, who retires at the board’s February meeting after five years in the job.)
“It was simply the [new] role, the right opportunity that came up,” he says.
“You can’t always control the timing but I feel really good about the timing. It’s been a couple of very challenging years for the industry but 2024 and beyond is looking really positive. There’s a really strong team in place at Zespri and across the industry to take things forward.”
“It’s another iconic brand and company in the global fresh production sector. They have a really great strategy to bring their berries to more consumers around the world; a really clear idea of where they want to expand.
“My job will be to go in with the team there and continue to grow the Americas’ business.”
Mathieson says he’s most looking forward to helping Driscoll’s drive organisational function, market penetration and returns to its independent growers.
“While both Zespri and Driscoll’s have done very well, there are enormous opportunities for growth for the future, getting more consumers and customers to love eating fruits as a regular part of their diet.”
Zespri is owned by present and past growers and supplied by around 2800 New Zealand orchardists. It has 1500 contracted growers and providers overseas to ensure the Zespri brand is on retail shelves year-round.
Here at home, grower interests are represented by NZKGI.
Its chief executive Colin Bond says Mathieson “brought in a new style of leadership - one which reflected the changing nature of our industry and Zespri’s role as the marketer within it”.
“It’s been great to have a robust working relationship with Dan through the myriad of difficulties we have experienced over the years...
“Dan demonstrated the balance that is required for the increasingly global nature of our business that we have today, and while based in Singapore and regularly travelling to our different markets, he also spent a large proportion of his time in New Zealand to be present with growers.
“Often primary industries are victims of their own success, and as the demand for our kiwifruit has quickly grown, the whole supply chain has had to be strengthened to ensure that consumers can enjoy our high-value New Zealand-grown fruit.
“Over the last seven years Dan had a large role to play in supporting the growth of both Zespri and our industry as a whole as it has transitioned to produce, export and sell significantly larger volumes.”
Bond says Zespri’s next CEO “will need to continue to deal with these growth challenges, which will include decisions on Zespri’s northern hemisphere production, as well as any production in China”.
New Zealand’s biggest kiwifruit producer is NZX-listed Seeka, which also grows the fruit in Australia.
Seeka’s chief executive Michael Franks is known as an industry player who keeps the regulated Zespri on its toes.
Franks says Mathieson “is a world-class fruit marketer and he’s heading to one of the berry world’s giants”.
“Dan has overseen Zespri through a period of turbulence with supply chain issues, Covid and climate problems. Thankfully these issues were overcome in 2023 with much improved returns and performance, albeit on lower volumes. He has led the growth of SunGold sales and the introduction of the new red,” Franks added.
Mathieson says the grim 2022 season with its quality problem was one of his biggest challenges as CEO.
“We had to take a real industry-wide look. Once quality fails it doesn’t matter if you have the best brand in the world, the best marketing, the best people - it’s very hard to get successful outcomes.”
Won’t he just be taking on more of the same headaches at Driscoll’s given the extreme weather events associated with climate change?
“The global horticulture sector is facing those challenges. Adverse weather is having a real impact on crops - whether fruits or vegetables. Companies like Driscoll’s and Zespri are going to have to find ways through that.
“Ways like diversifying growing locations within a country or globally. Looking at new varieties that are able to grow in different locations to the traditional. Further down the track, new growing systems to protect them from adversity.”
Seeing the New Zealand kiwifruit industry get back on export track last year also counts as a major highlight.
“The collective nature of the industry and how we pull together to find solutions and realise opportunities is unlike very few other fresh fruit produce industries in the world.
“It has created enormous value and there’s enormous value to be had in the future.
“It’s a very special place with a very special future.”
Andrea Fox joined the Herald as a senior business journalist in 2018 and specialises in writing about the dairy industry, agribusiness, exporting and the logistics sector and supply chains.
Overseas growers are lining up to produce SunGold for Zespri.