Meryvn Dallas, the long-serving chief financial officer of Tauranga-based kiwifruit marketing entity Zespri International, has announced his resignation, effective June.
Mr Dallas has been chief financial officer of Zespri for eight-and-a-half years. His term coincided with a period when Zespri faced major problems over customs and invoicing issues in China, Taiwan and Korea, and had to pay a multi-million dollar fine in China, where a key distributor was jailed.
Zespri is responding to a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the invoicing issues. Zespri would not comment on whether or not Mr Dallas' resignation had any connection with the past problems, or the Serious Fraud Office investigation.
The chief financial officer was reported on Tuesday as saying his decision had nothing to do with those factors, but that he felt it was time for him to move on. Recruitment of his replacement has begun.
Zespri chief executive Lain Jager said that Mr Dallas had given 12 years of service to the kiwifruit industry and was deeply respected throughout the industry by all participants.