GPG director and Enza chairman Tony Gibbs has said that both Enza and GPG's 46-per cent owned Turners & Growers are in talks and a feasibility study is under way.

A team of managers from both GPG companies, headed by Enza md Michael Dosser and his T&G counterpart Don Turner, is leading the study and is expected to report back in six weeks.

Once a proposal is on the table, it will have to be approved by both sets up shareholders.

If a merger goes ahead T&G, which supplies vegetables and fruit other than apples and pears as well as flowers to the NZ market, would be able in theory to supply those lines to Enza for distribution through its established export links in Europe, Asia and the US.

T&G's second largest shareholder is Ecuadorian banana exporter the Noboa Corporation, which is at the centre of a labour rights row.