Enza has given apple growers more time to decide whether to accept its compromise deal on the foreign exchange debts row.
Growers now have until September 7.
An Enza spokesman, John Walsh, said the extension was because the industry's regulatory Apple and Pear Board would announce this week its decision on penalties
to be imposed on Enza for breaching industry rules.
The board has already ruled that Enza's foreign exchange trading breached regulations requiring the company to stick to buying and exporting pipfruit. On Friday it will announce what penalty it will impose.
Enza and representatives of its 1100 apple growers cut a deal over payout deductions of $4.50 a carton to pay a bill of $54.5 million, including $50 million of foreign exchange debts.
In essence, Enza agreed to give back $21 million which the industry regulator said it should not have taken in the first place.
But it made this conditional on there being no financial cost to Enza in the penalties imposed by the regulator.
- NZPA
