By PHILIPPA STEVENSON agricultural editor
Kiwifruit growers have emphatically plumped for the industry control they were denied when forced to dump their single selling producer board last year.
A bumper turnout of growers at a meeting in Tauranga yesterday voted on measures designed to keep the assets of marketer Zespri in the
hands of the average grower by linking shareholding to production.
Although the official result has yet to be announced, it was clear from the weight of proxy votes held by those backing the proposal, and the tenor of the meeting, that the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
The initiators of the vote, Katikati growers Allan Dawson and Alan Sutherland, had hoped for a big showing to ensure the Government got a strong message on growers' desire for control of their industry.
They believed the industry shareholding structure, in place since April 1 and forced on growers by the previous Government, would let in corporate raiders, as happened to the similarly set up apple marketer Enza, formerly the Apple and Pear Marketing Board.
Mr Sutherland told the meeting that grower investment of $2 billion, a post-harvest sector stake of $300 million and Zespri assets of $4 million clearly showed that growers had the biggest slice of the industry, and control should lie with them.
A vertically integrated industry had strength and to separate growers from Zespri "would tear its heart out," he said.
Zespri chairman Doug Voss urged growers not to let ownership and control slip through their fingers.
But the 500 growers who turned out, many of them holding votes for the other 1000 or so growers nationwide, needed little urging. Their number indicated they had responded to the call for unity.
* Apple orchardists from Hawkes Bay, Gisborne, Waikato, Wairarapa and Levin say they will protest at Parliament next Wednesday over the slow timetable for changes to apple and pear industry regulations.
The growers said they faced a crisis because Enza would not accept much of this season's crop for export.
