Heads Should Roll at NZKGI

Heads Should Roll at NZKGI

IKGA member Ted Meade has today called for the resignation of the Chief Executive and Chairman of NZKGI and reiterated the IKGA call for an independent enquiry into the industry. Ted said …

“ I called the NZKGI office twice on Friday the 18th October after the publication that day by the

National Business Review of a story claiming that 151 containers of kiwifruit had been seized in China in 2011 over the customs fraud issue. This was contrary to Zespri’s earlier statements that no containers had been held by Chinese Customs over the customs fraud issues so I called Mike Chapman to ask him if NZKGI was investigating this latest revelation by the NBR as part of the long running NZKGI enquiry into the matter. I did not get to speak to Mike but he sent me an email later that day in which he said this…

My inquiries reveal that NO Zespri Kiwifruit was seized in 2011 by China Customs, claims that 80 percent of our shipments to China were dumped at a loss are wrong and there were no multi-million dollar losses as there was no kiwifruit seized.

I now read in the NZKGI weekly bulletin of 8 November that at their politburo/ forum meeting this week they had a briefing from Zespri about this . The bulletin said that Zespri had told the forum meeting that ……

• The 151 containers were not seized by China Customs – these containers were held up at the wharf while the importer arranged payment of a Custom’s Bond

• Fruit loss was 11% not the 80% stated in the media

It seems to me that Mr Chapman did not have much time on Friday the 18th October to do any investigation into this matter. Now, a couple of weeks after he told me NO Zespri kiwifruit was “seized “ NZKGI are telling growers that there were 151 containers “held up” on the wharf in China and that there was fruit loss of 11 % as a result . I am not sure what the difference is between being “seized” as Mr Chapman put it in his email and being “held up” as in the NZKGI bulletin. “

Mr Meade also commented on the resolution of the last NZKGI Forum meeting to complain to the

Press Council about NBR investigative journalist Jamie Ball. He said …

“ I wonder if NZKGI have lodged their complaint with the Press Council. If they have they are going to look a bit stupid now. Clearly the NBR was right that there were 151 containers involved. Of course ,if NBR were right about the 151 containers, then despite NZKGI and Zespri claims otherwise, the rest of the claims the newspaper made are likely to be factually correct as well. The NBR is not the News of the World and would not be publishing without being damn certain of their facts. “

Mr Meade also said he doubted that the fruit loss was only 11% from the hold up on the wharf. He thinks that based on 20 pallets to a container and taking a guess at a mix of green and gold fruit and an exchange rate of .80 to the $US there could have been between $10 to $15.5 million NZ of kiwifruit held up on the wharf in China in 2011.

“Assuming that Zespri were not double invoicing with a lower customs declared “official” price then , if my back of the cigarette pack calculations are near the mark, the fruit loss could be as high as $1.7 million based on the 11% of the volume the bulletin talks about”….said Mr Meade.

“ IKGA wants to know if any of that fruit loss was charged to the grower pool or to Zespri. Whether the importer was an agent or selling on consignment the problem is Zespri’s and any fruit loss as a result of these 151 containers being held up in China must not be charged to the grower pool. This should be a charge against Zespri and hit the pockets of the 25% of NZ growers who own 75% of the shares in Zespri.“.

He went on to say about this issue….

” The problem is that we only know what we are being told by Zespri and NZKGI seem far too willing to accept that at face value as shown. I would not mind betting that the fruit loss was, in fact, higher than 11% but as NZKGI have turned down Damien O’Connors call for an independent enquiry we may never get to the bottom of this. It seems to us that Mr Chapman’s initial enquiries must have been conducted in the Zespri urinal. We are now beginning to wonder if the much talked about NZKGI enquiry into the China situation is being conducted entirely behind closed doors in the Zespri urinals.

It seems to us that there is a fair amount of urine being discharged from NZKGI into the pockets of Zespri’s trousers. “

Mr Meade concluded in his usual forthright way by calling for the resignations of both Mr Chapman and NZKGI Chairman Neil Trebilco...

“ These people have forgotten how to represent growers and certainly do not know how to find out the truth so I don’t see that they should continue in their jobs.”

Information about IKGA

• IKGA was established in May 2010 by a group of concerned kiwifruit growers.

• IKGA aims to provide an independent voice for kiwifruit growers because it has no confidence in the ability of KNZ or NZKGI to act as effective watchdogs on the activities of Zespri.

• IKGA believes there are questions that are not being asked about the activities of Zespri, the way it operates and how grower funds are dealt with.

• IKGA is concerned that Zespri has become another corporate and lacks proper accountability to growers.

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