Between the lines - April Fool tricks never so risky

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Perhaps it is asking too much of fate to be kind if you launch critical new ventures on April Fools' Day.

The apple and kiwifruit industries did just that after the former National Government's efforts last July meant the two old judge-and-jury producer boards were juiced on Friday.

On Saturday, April 1, new regimes burst forth complete with smart-looking corporate structures ready to sell the nation's top-earning fruits, their growers no longer just suppliers but also shareholders.

In the wings, however, the protective cloaks of the old single-sellers still hover. These are the regulatory boards which have powers to, basically, kneecap anyone threatening to undermine the major sellers' marketing efforts.

The new era, effectively operational for several months, has already attracted its share of controversy, especially in the apple sector.

The conflict may signal that the seeds of further change were sown with this seemingly small shift from the former rigid structures.

The Producer Board Project Team which brought about the new look wanted to go much further and open up the industries fully to competition; so it may feel it has played a very clever April Fools' joke.

Meanwhile, the way the two industries marked the turnover told its own story.

Kiwifruit growers, in good heart from several seasons of good returns, partied and generally greeted the change in high spirits.

The bad news just keeps piling up for apple growers, and the coming of a new age was noted only by the resignation announcement of Enza chairman John McCliskie.

And a few days earlier, growers had been given the bleak choice of juicing much of their braeburn harvest, or taking a gamble that export prices, expected to be low, would improve.

The switch in fortunes of the innovative and premium-fruit producing apple sector was sudden and brutal. It holds a lesson for the partying kiwifruit growers.

They may have a weakness in the new gold kiwifruit which chairman Doug Voss claims is "setting alight the fruit world."

It will need to, because it is unknown except in a couple of countries where a few hundred thousand trays have been test-marketed in the past two years.

This year there is a deluge of around five million trays and chief executive Tony Marks says a disproportionate amount of the promotional budget will be spent pushing it in markets which have never seen it before.

The company acknowledges it has only one chance to make the new product a volume seller.

The industry hopes to further diversify from the mainstay green fruit, so selling this gold rush will need to be a gamble that pays off handsomely.