Zespri emblem

New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri has celebrated a successful year in the face of the global economic crisis at its Annual General Meeting (AGM), which took place in Tauranga this week.

During the meeting, which attracted more than 500 grower-shareholders and interested parties, group chairman John Loughlin and CEO Lain Jager outlined the positive growth seen over the past 12 months which has seen service payments to the industry of NZ$800m (€368.9m) and a production record of 100m trays of New Zealand kiwifruit.

These results translated directly into a final dividend payment for growers of 56 cents per share next month, bringing the full-year dividend up to 98.4 cents per share – up 22 per cent on 2008, Zespri said.

Further highlights of the meeting included an announcement regarding the expansion of a new cultivar breeding and evaluation programme, and a proposal to the industry that the net Zespri commission should be reduced by NZ$10m (€4.6m) annually to around 7 per cent of net sales, in order to equitably share the superior returns earned from the industry's structure between growers and shareholders.

Additionally, the group welcomed the appointment of three new directorsto the Zespri board, in the shape of Ray Sharp, Tony de Farias and TonyMarks.

'On behalf of the Zespri board and executive team, we look forwardto working together to progress a number of key initiatives includingthe Zespri new cultivar programme and market expansion over the comingyears,' said Mr Loughlin.

During the meeting, growers showed strong support for Zespri over recent moves by Turners and Growers (T&G) to criticise the single-desk export system operated by the group. T&G has since revealed that it is taking court action against Zespri over a range of issues, including Zespri’s alleged attempt tomonopolise the Australian market for New Zealand kiwifruit,anti-competitive behaviour and sale of foreign-grown kiwifruit underthe Zespri label, which T&G says contravenes New Zealand’sKiwifruit Export Regulations 1999.