Turners & Growers welcomes ACT bill on kiwifruit

Turners & Growers welcomes Act Party bill on exports of kiwifruit variants

August 6 (BusinessDesk) - Turners & Growers Chairman Tony Gibbs says he welcomes a private members bill from the Act Party that would allow owners of kiwifruit variants to export their own fruit.

Act’s Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring (Plant Variety Rights) Amendment Bill is a key step to removing “hypocrisy” from regulations governing the fruit, said Gibbs, who has waged a campaign to strip Zespri of its export control.

Under the bill, owners or licensees of so-called Kiwifruit Plant Variety Rights, or PVRs, would be allowed to export fruit without restriction. Turners & Growers owns a red kiwifruit variety called EnzaRed, which it is hoping will match the export earnings of the first significant new variety to hit the market, Gold kiwifruit.

Gibbs said the Kiwifruit Export Regulations 1999 were set up when Zespri was a grower cooperative with one variety – the green Hayward. The world had moved on and it was now “ridiculous” for Zespri as the owner of one PVR to exercise control over all varieties, he said.

Under export regulations make Zespri the only company allowed to export kiwifruit to markets outside New Zealand and Australia.

Shares of Turners & Growers traded yesterday at $1.40.

(BusinessDesk)

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