A High Court judgement against an award-winning North Island poultry producer holds a message for all involved in farming, says Federated Farmers Grain vice chairman Hew Dalrymple.

“It is very important people stand by contracts, be that a deal on the phone or a written one. After all, a written contract is only backing up a verbal one.”

His comments come after his family’s Waitatapia Station business and five other farmers took Turks Poultry to court for failing to honour a verbal deal for maize grain struck at $465/t pre-harvest.

The market subsequently dropped and when it came to deliver what was close to 6000t collectively, Turk’s denied a price had been fixed and paid $300/t.

Now Turks must pay the growers the balance, which, with interest accrued, is about $1.2 million, says Waitatapia’s counsel for the case, Bruce Scott, of Chapman Tripp.

Two of the plaintiffs also successfully challenged the area contracted which resulted in higher charges to Turks because it had refused to accept the grain from part of the area at any price.

In those instances the growers had been forced to sell elsewhere at $260/t, says Scott. “This case demonstrates an oral contract is just as enforceable as a written one.

“It can be difficult to prove when it is one person’s word against another but even then the court usually has an ability to cut through that… In most cases where an oral contract is alleged there is a bunch of documents which support the fact there was a deal.”

Despite the pending court action Turks Poultry, a family-owned and operated egg and broiler producer and processor, was named winner of the Horowhenua-Kapiti district Electra Business of the Year Awards in November.

The awards announcement described it as “a stand out business in the region”, employing 155 staff at five locations from Auckland to Foxton which “exemplifies best practice across all levels”.

Awards organisers say they were not aware of the pending court action and that the business that won the award was the poultry processor, not the rearing or egg business.

“The award was given to a very effective and efficient business running an abattoir,” awards chairman Tony Rush told Rural News. As of last week there was no plan to strip Turks of the award.

Turks’ manager, director, and 24% shareholder, Ron Turk did not respond to Rural News’ calls.