The company seeking to end Zespri’s kiwifruit monopoly is labelling a new 7-year plan to develop new varieties as too drawn out.

Fresh produce exporter Turners & Growers (T&G) says New Zealand growers are missing out on being the Southern Hemisphere’s leading growers of the lucrative new varieties available now.

The $35m plan to develop new kiwifruit varieties is a joint venture between the Government and Zespri. It is seen as Zespri’s answer to T&G’s campaign to end the single-desk marketer’s monopoly status.

T&G chairman Tony Gibbs says while it is good to see the Government now pushing Zespri to get on with the development of new varieties, it has only come after T&G put the spotlight on the lack of innovation under the monopoly structure.

‘While Government assistance for new varieties will be welcomed, if the market was a free one the innovation would naturally happen,’ he says. ‘It would happen much faster and the taxpayer wouldn’t be picking up the tab.’

Hort NZ chief executive Peter Silcock says Zespri has been focussed on developing new kiwifruit varieties for some time.

‘I don’t think it has come in response to T&G,’ he says. ‘The work has been going on for some time.’

Silcock says Government involvement reflects confidence in the future of kiwifruit.

HortNZ president and Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower Andrew Fenton says as a high costs producer the industry needs to use science, research and technology to find new products.

‘Kiwifruit is New Zealand horticulture’s brightest star, and only determined commitment to product development will keep it that way,’ Fenton says.

The continued growth of the kiwifruit sector is a cornerstone of Horticulture New Zealand’s overall goal to reach a total industry value of $10 billion by 2020.

‘The key to the new research funding announced is not to grow double the number of kiwifruit – the idea is to grow higher value fruit, and more of it, on the land we already have,’ says Fenton.

‘We grow the best kiwifruit in the world in New Zealand, and with this type of significant investment, we can take on the world, and leverage good returns for growers off our increasingly strong market position,’ he says.