BY PHILIPPA STEVENSON agricultural editor
Growers angry that kiwifruit marketer Zespri axed contracts for an early-to-market fruit are going to court.
A class action claiming unspecified damages from Zespri was filed in the High Court on behalf of more than 60 growers of the Tomua variety of fruit this week.
Tomua Action
Group spokesman Terry Harris said growers' losses, including the 50 per cent premium Zespri offered for the fruit until 2007, could reach $20 million. Individual claims were still being worked out.
The suit was filed after Zespri refused mediation on a compensation package offered to growers, he said.
Zespri said in a newsletter to around 150 Tomua growers that it had considered the action group's proposal for a substantial increase to the support package but had concluded that it lacked any sound legal and financial basis.
"The board considers that no useful purpose would be served in mediation," it said.
Zespri would "vigorously defend any litigation in the interests of the company and all its industry stakeholders."
Meanwhile, the company has extended to October 30 the original September 1 deadline for growers to accept the support package. The date had been deferred after most suppliers of all types of kiwifruit had agreed that their contract payments for 2001 to 2003 could include a deduction to assist in funding the Tomua package.
Since 1995, growers have been encouraged to produce the early ripening Tomua so Zespri could head off Chilean fruit in the Northern Hemisphere market.
The company halted the scheme this year following customer dissatisfaction and because another programme producing early maturing main crop Hayward fruit successfully filled the marketing niche.
