Zespri owns new varieties that have grown the market and helped stave off the threat of vine disease Psa. Its main competitor overseas is Chile, which has about half its production.
The company, which has an export monopoly thanks to government legislation, generates about $1 billion in export revenue from about 15,000ha. "We are a small but valuable industry," he says. "We are concentrated in the Bay of Plenty where we account for about 25 per cent of the local GDP. So if the industry suffers the region gets hit pretty hard."
There are about 2500 growers, with 50 orchards in Hawke's Bay. Grower returns in 2000 were up to $30,000 per ha, rising to the current $50,000 per ha and projected to rise to $80,000 in the next five years.
At the wharf, Zespri takes control, exporting to 53 countries. Global revenue is $1.3 billion from just 160 New Zealand and 120 overseas staff. "It is the only exporter allowed to sell fruit outside of New Zealand and Australia. You can collaborate and export out with us, but we have [had] that single desk structure since 1987."
Japan was "the jewel in the crown", followed by Spain and China. But kiwifruit is just half a per cent of the global fruit bowl.
"Generally you walk into a supermarket not to buy kiwifruit but to buy fruit. Hopefully, we can convince you to come and get ours."
Fruit industry success is often reliant on scale, proximity to market and the ability to keep costs down, he says. "So that doesn't bode well if you produce your fruit far away from the market and have high costs of land and labour."
Kiwifruit doesn't travel well either. "It can go from rock hard to no-use-to-anyone very quickly."
It has the potential to be "absolutely awful" and lacks visual appeal. "It is brown and hairy."
The fruit business is a commodity business, with 70 per cent of the fruit in the world grown and sold in the same market. "It is a New Zealand story -- we are far from market with high costs of production. We can't compete in the commodity space so what we have done is turn a commodity into a premium product."
After $1 billion in marketing, Zespri is one of the most recognised fruit brands in parts of China, No2 in Spain and in the top five in Japan and Korea. Zespri accounts for about one third of the world's kiwifruit traded globally, but enjoys two thirds of its value.
He says the Zespri brand promises kiwifruit that is delicious, healthy and safe.
The company is "ruthless" in making sure fruit is to standard. Fruit with any chemical residue is dumped. "We have the ability to test every single supplying orchard for about 300 agrichemicals."
Although Zespri does not own the orchards or post-harvest facilities, it does assist in raising productivity. There has been a 5 per cent increase in productivity every year for the past 10 years "using the same genetic material" by "just doing things better".
The company is trying to grow the market by promoting the fruit's nutritional benefits. Gold kiwifruit has three times the vitamin C of oranges.
Growing the user base is a simple way to boost demand.
"The top 5 per cent of our consumers, those that eat kiwifruit every day, eat around 31 per cent of our fruit. The top 42 per cent of our consumers, those who eat it once a day or once or twice a week, they make up 92 per cent of our volume."
The company is confident people prefer Zespri "but the biggest risk is while we are off the shelves they buy competitors' fruit and don't like it as much, so exit the category".
Lincoln University Professor Caroline Saunders conducts surveys comparing developed countries' consumers' values, attitudes and preferences with those of emerging market consumers.
The study found Chinese and Indian consumers rated animal welfare, food certification and GM-free status higher than UK consumers and they were willing to pay a premium.
Only 34 per cent of UK consumers rated animal welfare as very important in a New Zealand product, compared with 42 per cent and 50 per cent of Chinese and Indian respondents respectively. Chinese and Indian consumers valued organic and GM-free attributes in New Zealand products above UK consumers.
The Agribusiness and Research Unit director says this knowledge could be used to implement food branding more effectively.
There is a need to change the culture in some of the larger exporting companies, she says. If New Zealand don't start moving from commodities, as Zespri has done, exports will decline.
New Zealand is built on preferential access to the UK market and there is " a bit of a culture" of taking orders and "not really respecting what the market wants".
The country should be claiming "credence attributes", she says. "This should be a premium just because it comes from New Zealand.We have some wonderful attributes."
There is an "improving appetite" for a collective conversation on a New Zealand brand. Negative publicity has filled the void.
"When 'foodmiles' was happening they held up New Zealand butter as the bad example. I said to the dairy industry, do you care?
"They said no, not really, because we send so much product into Europe with the quota access. But of course it affected sheep, kiwifruit and other exports."
She says 2012 studies "opened the eyes of big companies".
New Zealand should think about how it produces its products "and get that message into markets".
