Kiwifruit growers welcome $24.1m payout to Zespri for mice infestation

Zespri chief executive Jason Te Brake said the settlement was a positive outcome for the industry.

By Monique Steele of RNZ

Kiwifruit growers are welcoming the $24.1 million payout Zespri has received for the mice infestation on last season’s first shipment of SunGold to Europe as “a late Christmas present”.

More than a million trays were destroyed in May href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/kiwifruit-mice-on-ship-delay-season-in-europe/NZC2AJJL6RBCNIDIVB6VNLL3BA/" target="_blank">following the discovery of vermin aboard the Crown Garnet shipment of SunGold around Belgium in April last year.

Zespri said the successful marine cargo insurance claim will return a “substantial proportion of the losses” attributed to the incident to growers of SunGold at a value of 17-18 cents per tray, which will be reflected in the next forecast in February.

Chief executive Jason Te Brake said the settlement was a positive outcome for the industry.

“We take fruit quality incredibly seriously and our decision to dispose of the fruit from the impacted vessel reflects our ongoing commitment to food safety and protecting our brand.”

Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated chief executive Colin Bond said there was some relief among growers.

“I think it’s a late Christmas present for growers that they’ll be delighted to receive,” Bond said.

“We were really surprised.

“I think we were all expecting a good result, but we weren’t expecting the results so quickly, so it’s great news that Zespri’s confirmed yesterday that growers will be receiving to the pool an extra $24m over the next month or two.”

Bond said the payments, as usual, will go to the customers and their various post-harvest suppliers, who then pay growers who provided the fruit.

“It’s great that we’ve got a majority of the value of that fruit back in the first payment, and still the opportunity potentially for more once Zespri concludes the process under the other insurance policy.”

He said it would help their balance sheets after a couple of tough seasons.

“2024 was a season that we all needed after a couple of quality challenges [in] ‘22 and late frosts in ‘23 that hampered yields,” he said.

“So ‘24 is a return to profitability for the majority of growers, and at this point in the in the growing season, 2025 is looking promising as well.

“So there’s a lot of the positivity in the sector, and [that’s] just aided by this additional 17 cents the gold growers are going to receive from the insurance payout.”

Zespri will capture the proceeds in its 2024 SunGold kiwifruit pool and awaits a result for a further product contamination insurance claim.

– RNZ