Zespri achieved global net kiwifruit sales of $4.03 billion in 2021-2022. Photo / Supplied
Zespri achieved global net kiwifruit sales of $4.03 billion in 2021-2022. Photo / Supplied
Kiwifruit export marketer Zespri wants growers' approval to significantly expand the overseas planting area of its bestseller SunGold fruit - but more than a supply boost is riding on their vote next month.
The world's largest kiwifruit marketer, which has the statutory right to be New Zealand's primary exporter ofthe fruit, will be anxious for a show of grower support for the leadership initiative after failing to win them over in another vote last year.
That was a plan to counter rogue growing in China of SunGold or Gold3 kiwifruit. It needed 75 per cent voter support - it got 70.5 per cent. A secondary proposal around this issue only got 64.1 per cent grower backing.
The new proposal requiring a vote is to increase planted hectares of SunGold in overseas countries by up to another 10,000ha - excluding China and Chile - to meet consumer demand for the fruit all year round.
Sector opinion is that while the proposition isn't stirring up the same emotion as the China issue, Zespri leaders will not want to lose a second producer vote.
Herald inquiries of the grower sector suggest mixed feelings about the proposal after several months of grower consultation by Zespri, which increased its global net sales 12 per cent to $4.03 billion last year. Voting opens on July 28 and closes on August 24.
The vote comes as Zespri's chairman Bruce Cameron has warned growers of "significant headwinds" in the 2022-2023 export season due to cost increases, inflation, and quality issues caused in part by a critical labour shortage.
In 2019 growers approved overseas commercial planting of 5000ha of SunGold overseas, excluding China and Chile. Chile has the same growing season as New Zealand.
Zespri leaders say with the current 5000ha limit there is a significant gap between demand and supply which will widen in the coming years. Modelling shows under the current overseas planting regime, Zespri's overseas global supply regime will only achieve 30 per cent of target demand for SunGold in 2030, and its strategy for 12-month consumer supply won't be achieved.
Modelling shows by increasing plantings by up to another 10,000ha, the overseas growing regime will allow Zespri to supply up to 93 per cent of target demand (depending on yields) by 2030 in the New Zealand off-season.
Port of Tauranga is New Zealand's main kiwifruit export gateway. Photo / File
Growers will be asked to vote on two resolutions. One is the proposal to increase overseas plantings by up to 10,000ha; the second is to increase overseas planted hectares of any new variety not currently licenced for commercial production offshore (excluding China and Chile) from 1000ha to a maximum of 2000ha.
Both proposals need 75 per cent support.
The first proposal to increase overseas SunGold plantings has conditions attached: up to 6000 additional ha (11,000ha total) may be planted by March 21, 2028, progress on which will be reported to the industry annually from March next year; and up to 4000 additional ha (15,000ha total) may be planted between April 2028 and March 2031.
NZ Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated, advocate for the industry's 2800 New Zealand growers, told the Herald it recognised "a broad range of risks and opportunities" associated with the proposals, but had decided not to take a position at this time.
Chief executive Colin Bond said the organisation would present growers with "different perspectives which may challenge current assumptions and give growers a deeper insight to allow them to make a more informed decision".
In the lead-up to the vote, NZKGI would deliver to growers information and expert views, including from outside Zespri, on the wider pros and cons about growing outside New Zealand, as well as the utilisation of 12-month supply on supermarket shelves.
