Voting on Zespri’s offshore growing expansion plan off to a strong start

SunGold kiwifruit is a global best-seller for export marketer Zespri, which wants to expand offshore growing of the variety.

It’s early days, but Zespri’s second bid to persuade the kiwifruit industry to allow more branded fruit to be grown offshore has sparked more voter interest than its first effort.

As at 3pm on Wednesday, three days into the industry producer vote, 17.35% of eligible voters had responded, compared to 6.92% at the same time in the 2022 vote, a Zespri spokesperson said.

The global marketer is asking producers in the $3 billion export industry to support the allocation of up to 420 more hectares of best-seller SunGold kiwifruit a year over six years in Italy, France, Japan, South Korea and Greece.

Voting opened on November 11 and will close on December 5. The result will be known in mid-December.

To pass, the resolution will need support from at least 75% of producers who vote, both by number and weighted production.

Grower advocate NZKGI supports the resolution, as does Māori Kiwifruit Growers Inc, whose members represent 10% of New Zealand’s total export crop.

Grower-owned Zespri failed about this time two years ago to get enough producer support to expand plantings of its SunGold overseas, excluding China and Chile by up to 10,000ha.

The vote was close, but fell short of success because some growers who did not own shares did not believe more offshore planting would benefit them. Under 50% of Zespri’s growers own shares, a level the company is working to lift.

Zespri, which industry sources said had done a “hard sell” in its attempt to get offshore expansion over the line this time, has the statutory right to export all New Zealand kiwifruit, except to Australia.

The company has run offshore production for nearly 25 years to complement New Zealand supply. It has 1500 contracted offshore producers.

The aim of the expansion is to support the marketer’s strategy of being able to offer the world Zespri-branded fruit 12 months of the year. In New Zealand, kiwifruit is a seasonal crop. The approved offshore maximum of 5000ha has been allocated.

Zespri chief executive Jason Te Brake said expanding overseas plantings was important to deliver value to growers and the proposal reflected the positive outlook for kiwifruit and an increasingly competitive fruit category.

Zespri is supplied by around 2800 New Zealand growers and, working alongside the multimillion-dollar post-harvest sector, is New Zealand’s biggest exporter in the horticulture sector.

Observers say Zespri’s credibility with the industry is on the line with the second vote.

It has lost two producer votes in recent years; a third would not be a good look for its leadership of the integrated industry, they say.

Andrea Fox joined the Herald as a senior business journalist in 2018 and specialises in writing about the $26b dairy industry, agribusiness, exporting and the logistics sector and supply chains.