Zespri wants to become the world’s healthiest fruit brand by 2035.
Zespri is leading the way
Zespri has set its sights on becoming the world’s healthiest fruit brand by 2035. This was the media release from it earlier this month, aiming to be first for consumers, first for growers and first for people.
Having exceeded its long-standing goal of $4.5 billion in revenue by 2025, it is continuing to develop its 2035 strategy to ensure it remains future-fit in a global environment that will be more competitive and more complex. This is from its chief executive, Jason Te Brake.
Zespri is 100% owned by current and past New Zealand kiwifruit growers. Barely a generation young, these guys are storming for us on the world stage and just getting into second gear now. Why can’t Fonterra, and all its farmers, see potential like this?
Don’t sell out to the French – keep the control, innovation, and integrity of it here. We will protect and prosper from it this way rather making that “quick buck” which has been disastrous for New Zealand on many sellouts in the past.
Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.
Fonterra a strategic asset
I very much agree with correspondent Mike O’Sullivan (Oct 20) that Winston Peters’ concern at the detrimental effects the Fonterra brand sales will have on New Zealand’s economy is a valid one.
Instead of increasing New Zealand’s desperately needed productivity by adding value to raw product, the sale would be a retrograde step taken by people, some of whom have no history with building up the value of Fonterra’s brands but find themselves in a position to take a personal benefit from current shareholding in the company. Even the CEO has only been there “five minutes” in the scheme of things.
The Government should be looking at Fonterra as a strategic asset to New Zealand in the same league as air and sea ports and water and electricity providers.
If Helen Clark and Michael Cullen had the wisdom to stop the sale of Auckland Airport to foreign owners on the grounds of it being on sensitive land, surely this impending sale fits a similar critique.
Coralie van Camp, Remuera.
Rough road
The new chip seal roading, which is about as cheap as a road surfacing gets, has an added advantage. When the council suction sweeper returns to pick up the excess loose stone chips four to six weeks later, they needn’t bother as most of the loose chips will have ended up in the tyres of the owners of the properties, driveways and garages fronting on to the newly surfaced roadway.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
House rules
There is a country pub in Nelson called The Honest Lawyer; this eye-catching name is painted proudly in large letters on its roof. People flying in to land at the airport nearby are often to be heard laughing about it.
The Herald article (Oct 20) about six current MPs - including the leader of a party, the Speaker of the House and at least two former ministers - failing to declare property they own, as required by Parliament’s rules, leads me to wonder if there may be a business opportunity for another pub with a similarly amusing name.
Claire Chambers, Parnell.
Doctor’s journey
I have just finished reading Dr Timoti Te Moke’s book The Unlikely Doctor on his journey from childhood delinquent to gang member to doctor.
He says people in South Auckland, where he works, need to see a brown-skinned doctor, a Māori doctor, a Pasifika doctor, and see it so often that they take it as normal.
It should be compulsory reading for all the politicians in our present Government. Boot camps and more jails don’t solve anything. The issues are very complex. I guess it’s all about being populist, appealing to a support base and therefore winning power.
Bruce Fletcher, Auckland.
Too much music
Like Taupō’s mayor (Oct 20), I too suffer from hearing loss, which, despite wearing hearing aids, makes it hard to participate in conversations in group settings.
What makes things worse, however, is the invasive so-called background music that seems to pervade every shop, cafe, restaurant and mall.
My local supermarket, excellent in many respects, is the worst offender, with music so loud that I am forced to turn off my hearing aids, which, of course, makes conversation even harder.
Music is there to be enjoyed in the right context but it is totally superfluous in these situations. The old adage “silence is golden” was never more appropriate.
Ray Gilbert, Pāpāmoa Beach.
Thought for the future
I was impressed to hear Tame Iti’s thought for the future, the same message Jacinda Ardern once put forward - “Be Kind.” Very refreshing.
Rex Fausett, Auckland.