Simon Limmer

Simon Limmer of Zespri

The possibility of establishing its own kiwifruit production base in China remains firmly on Zespri’s radar, according to the single-desk marketer’s chief operating officer Simon Limmer.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Limmer said Zespri was having ongoing negations with Chinese growers about the prospect of producing Zespri kiwifruit under license in the People’s Republic, although he insisted an operation would not be set up without further due diligence.

“There exists an opportunity for us to grow Zespri branded kiwifruit in China,' Limmer said. 'Central to that is intellectual property protection, which is something that we are focused on.”

The cautious approach come after Zespri trailed a small-scale planting in China during the mid-2000’s, which resulted in the piracy of its genetics and several illegal plantings of its gold variety.

'It's not what we wanted to see,' Limmer told the New Zealand Herald. 'It is illegal and it is a challenge for us to enforce, so understanding how we would operate in that environment is something for us to work out.”

China is tipped to become largest market by volume and value by 2020. Meanwhile, the cost of an ongoing New Zealand Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into Zespri has eclipsed NZ$6m (US$4.12m), according to the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend. The nature of the investigation, now entering its third year, remains under wraps, with the SFO not releasing any details of the inquest.

“The SFO investigation is ongoing and Zespri continues to fully co-operate,' Zespri chief executive Lain Jager told theBay of Plenty Times Weekend. 'The SFO has declined to communicate the focus of its investigation, but has requested several terabytes of information and around 2.8 million historical emails. Providing this information has required extensive legal review.'

Jager said the documents that had been requested by SFO investigators required legal review, with the subsequent cost adding up to around NZ$4.9m (US$3.37m) to date, while another NZ$1.4m (US$960,000) has been budgeted for the upcoming year.

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