Tom Wilson Satara low res

Tom Wilson

In his final update to shareholders before leaving the post of managing director, Satara Cooperative Group's Tom Wilson has hit out at Zespri International's brokerage fees.

According to New Zealand's BusinessDesk, Wilson said that brokerage rates of 6 per cent on gross sale proceeds and 6 per cent on FOB sales were costing growers between NZ$60m and NZ$140m (US$50m-US$117m, €38m-€90m) each year.

'I continue to be amazed at the politics, patch protection and commercial arrogance that prevents this money going to growers – this should have been sorted years ago,' Wilson said. 'We have a smart single exporter structure that actually needs to just focus on grower's commercial welfare to put a 'lazy' NZ$1 per try into your wallet.'

Wilson leaves Satara at the end of January, having been appointed managing director on an interim basis in 2010 after the departure of Wes Anderson-Smith.

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