Newspaper Article 1982 – Market boss calls for fruit co-op

Market boss calls for fruit co-op

A call for a fruitgrowers co-operative set up by the Apple and Pear Marketing Board with the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation and controlling 70 to 80 per cent of export production was made last night by the board’s marketing services manager, Mrs Yvonne Goldschmidt.

“It would be an extremely powerful force not only in New Zealand, but in the market place abroad, ” she told more than 100 stone and pipfruit growers at the Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association’s meeting in Hastings.

Mrs Goldschmidt emphasised that the suggestion was based on her own views and were not necessarily those of the board.

She said the alternative to not forming the co-operative would be the growth of an exclusive club of exporters “from which you would be excluded.”

The club’s exporters would go about the job selling fruit about the world and the money needed for a thorough marketing job would not be forthcoming.

The present system lacked commercial clout, expertise and the marketing [incomplete]