By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
Apple growers will take to the streets today in an unprecedented public display of rage at major exporter Enza.
Hawkes Bay apple growers plan to drive their tractors through central Hastings in what one orchardist said would be a release of pent-up anger.
They dispute Enza's contention that they
are liable for a claimed $50 million of losses stemming from botched foreign exchange hedging.
Grower Nigel Cooper said that if Enza continued to take $4.50 a carton from his fruit returns to cover the costs, he would lose up to $800,000 this season.
He had been forced to put one orchard up for sale. If it sold, the money would be used to finance the rest of his operation, which he built from scratch over 10 years.
The protesters will take a petition to Enza's regional headquarters demanding the company stop the deductions.
Mr Cooper said it was likely his staff would also be on the streets because they, too, realised the impact of the dispute on their livelihoods.
"There's a bit of emotion because we are all very concerned financially, and it is one way to vent a bit of spleen, really," he said.
Mr Cooper and fellow grower Dermott Malley are among a group, now representing 25 per cent of national apple production, who have used an arbitration process in their supply contracts to challenge Enza's right to make the deductions.
They returned home from meetings in Wellington yesterday frustrated that Enza staff were unable to attend and had, instead, sent legal representatives.
"If you are in a dispute you sort it out, you don't take the money first," Mr Malley said.
Mr Cooper said suggestions by Enza that growers had benefited from foreign exchange contracts in the past and had to take the downs as well as the ups did not wash with him. He was barely in the industry and did not get the benefits of the hedging.
"That's a red herring. That's seven or eight years ago. That's not going to help today. We're talking about the reality of what's going on in life today."
Meanwhile, the pipfruit industry watchdog, the Apple and Pear Board, had a second day of discussions with Enza as part of its investigation into the forex transactions.
Chairman John Isles said the matter was complex but he hoped the board could make a provisional report in the middle of next week.
