Total cost of incident, which saw a whole ship full of SunGold kiwifruit destroyed, now estimated at around €0.13 per tray
Kiwifruit marketer Zespri says the total cost incurred as a result of April’s “significant rodent infestation” on board the Crown Garnet, a ship carrying its first new-season SunGold fruit from New Zealand to Europe, is expected to be an average of NZ$0.23 (€0.13) per tray.
Last April, the company was forced to delay the start of its New Zealand export sales in Europe by a week after mice were reportedly discovered on board the vessel in Zeebrugge.
As a result, all of the 1.2mn trays on board were destroyed. The consignment was reported by Farmers Weekly to be worth in the region of NZ$12mn (€6.7mn).
At the time, then COO Jason Te Brake indicated the cost – which included the lost value plus the cost of disposal – might be higher, at around around NZ$34mn (€18.9mn), or NZ$0.30 (€0.17) per tray.
In its latest monthly Kiwiflier publication, Zespri provided an update on its efforts to file an insurance claim in relation to the incident.
“All the fruit affected has been treated as fruit loss in the SunGold Conventional 2024 Pool,” it said. “We are going through an insurance process to return as much of this value back to growers as possible.”
The company has two insurance options open to it. The first, known as a marine cargo policy, has a lower threshold but offers narrower cover; the second, called product contamination, has a high claim threshold but offers broader cover.
“All marine cargo insurers have accepted our claim under the policy,” it noted. “However, accepting a claim doesn’t mean they will be settling for the full loss. They are currently considering the final loss assessment report, which contains assessment information on the cause of loss, quantity and values of amounts for the claim.”
However, the company continues to work with its product contamination insurer on what it describes as “certain policy interpretation points”. And given the protracted nature of those investigations, it said, any claim proceeds might take years to be paid out.
Discussions about how any such repayments might be allocated to growers, and when that will happen, are ongoing.
“We are working with our insurers and in discussions with NZKGI, the Industry Supply Group, and the Industry Advisory Council to find an equitable solution for impacted growers and will provide an update by the end of the year,” the company added.
