Reports in New Zealand have suggested that a group of kiwifruit growers is looking to form an Independent Kiwifruit Growers Association, separate from industry body New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI).
A spokesman for the breakaway organisation, Marcus Wilkins, told local media in the country that some growers had expressed concerns over the NZKGI's ability to address issues such as green grower profitability and Zespri's performance under the Kiwifruit Export Regulations.
Mr Wilkins noted that his group also wanted growers to be paid earlier than the current system of payments spread over a 14-month period.
'Growers' fruit is largely sold by Christmas,' he explained. 'They have major expenses on orchard between harvest and Christmas – that is when they need the money.'
In addition, the 'new' association would want a review of the dividends that are paid on dry Zespri shares held by those not currently involved in kiwifruit production, a structure that Mr Wilkins said caused an imbalance between production and shareholding.
'We would like to see Zespri get back to being the cooperative that it should be, where shareholding is related to production,' he said.
Mr Wilkins also denied that his breakaway association was linked to Turners & Growers, which has led calls for the deregulation of the single-desk export system currently operated by the New Zealand kiwifruit industry.
'We are not a Turners & Growers puppet,' he said. 'If they were stupid enough to offer us money we would turn it down.
Turners & Growers wants to commercialise its own cultivars outside of the Zespri blanket, and Mr Wilkins confirmed that he was already growing one of those cultivars.
However, Peter Ombler, president of NZKGI, has championed the strength of the single point-of-entry marketing system currently in place in the country.
'We would not be able to have the same coordinated R&D spend without the disciplines the current structure gives us,' he told Fruitnet.com. 'It's also fair to say the government has more faith assisting us with the current structures in place.
'I've got nothing against anyone coming along with new cultivars, providing they have been robustly tested; it doesn't have to come through the Zespri programme by any means,' Mr Ombler added. 'But to purchase a cultivar from a third party and not put it through any of those tests, and then ask me to take the risk? I'm not prepared to do that, and most growers feel the same.'
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