Newspaper Article 1994 – Apple clash looms after merger call

Apple clash looms after merger call

A clash looms in Hawke’s Bay pipfruit politics after a call by Fruitgrowers’ Association president David Mardon for the region’s pipfruit action group to amalgamate with the pipfruit sector committee.

Action group chairman Barry Wilson said yesterday the group had no intention of giving up its independence. Under the MMP environment of the future the group’s efforts would be more important than ever.

“It’s new to me,” Mr Wilson said when told of Mr Mardon’s call.

In his president’s report for the year ended June 30, Mr Mardon the action group’s original pipfruit exporting and countering Apple Fields were commendable.

For a time there had been a need for single-minded focus on the group’s aims and the association had for some months carried the group’s secretarial and administrative costs. The group’s “innovative” move to personally present trays of fruit to politicians had paid off.

However, he now believed the district should speak with one voice.

“Credibility will be lost if politicians and the like note a lack of unison from Hawke’s Bay growers,” Mr Mardon said.

The association’s pipfruit sector membership was being increased and he welcomed action group participation.

“I see the amalgamation of these two groups as highly desirable.”

Yesterday Mr Mardon said he did not want to create a rift between the two groups, but he believed Hawke’s Bay pipfruit industry statements should all go out under the sector chairperson’s name.

“The pipfruit sector chairman should be the spokesman for pip-fruit sector issues…I think that’s important.”

There was room for the action group “off to the side”, but within the sector framework.

Mr Wilson, who was voted on to the sector committee this month, said the action group discussed its future at its last meeting and determined to keep going. However, it had a responsibility to growers to continue to operate independently.

The group had accepted $23,000 from growers to fund a campaign supporting single-desk exporting and it had built considerable awareness of political processes since.

The group was responsible to grower, not the sector committee, he said.

“We have to maintain our independence, that’s what an action group is about.

“We are there to help and we’ll work with the sector but at the end of the day the action group is, an independent group.”

Members believed that threats to the Apple and Pear Marketing Board’s control of exporting would only intensify. Under an MMP political structure, loss of the board’s export monopoly could be the price paid as deals were struck between coalition partners within the new political framework.

“There will be factions looking for people to work with to get legislation through,” he said.

“That’s the reason a single-minded action group like this needs to exist.”

The pipfruit sector’s membership of eight already had a wide range of issues to deal with and could not hope to give the attention his group’s nine members could devote to the single-desk issue, he said.

He said the sector committee needed to establish group’s within its membership to work on the range of separate issues confronting the industry, leaving the single-desk issue to the action group.

Mr Wilson said there would be no lack of credibility with politicians if both the association and the action group spoke the same message.

Photo captions –

Mr Mardon

Mr Wilson

Fine weather boosts apricot hopes

Another good apricot season seems likely if recent fine weather continues for another two weeks.

This year’s “magnificent” weather meant apricots were flowering strongly, Trust Fruit orchardist Graham Hope said.

However, diesel burning heaters were fit and wind machines started on the Omahu Rd property to fight at 2.3C frost on Friday and another of 0.6C on Saturday.

Mr Hope said the frosts, which would have struck other orchards in the region, were a consequence of this year’s dry ground conditions and fine weather.

“Apart from the frost we are setting ourselves up for a brilliant pollination, especially for apricots,” he said.

“If we get another week-and-a-half of this weather it will be the best bloom-wise for years.”

The long range weather forecast was for more of the same this week.

It was still early to make predictions but it seemed likely this year’s crop could match or better last year’s better-than-usual apricot harvest.

Another spinoff for orchardists was a reduced requirement to spray fungicides in the absence of rain, Mr Hope said.

Rex Graham and Associates field officer Chris Simpson agreed that prospects for the coming harvest were “promising”.

Daily temperatures of 16C promoted pollination. Growers had been forced to fight frosts but they had not been as severe as last year, he said. Royal Rosa varieties were flowering now and Sundrop were coming out this week. Golden Queens would also blossom this week.

Agriculture New Zealand consultant John Wilton said early varieties were out in Hawke’s Bay but blossoming this year was a little later than in past years because of cool July conditions. Last week he saw apricot trees in Canterbury more advanced in their flowering than those in Hawke’s Bay.

Mr Wilton said growers with blocks damaged by hail where fruit was left on the ground could be prone to botrytis infection.

With potentially a reservoir of botrytis inoculum on the ground growers would need to apply a fungicide to control infection, if wet weather eventuated around petal drop, he said.

Cool storage to be shared

Cool storage contracts to be signed soon between the Apple and Pear Marketing Board and private enterprise will usher in a new era for the board.

Grant MacDonald, the board’s North Island manager, said next year’s Hawke’s Bay crop could reach 7.5-million cartons and the board’s Hastings cool stores would not cope with that quantity. The region’s previous largest crop was 6.3-million cartons in 1993 and all available storage space was required then.

Recently the board called for expressions of interest from people interested in providing cool storage space to cope with next year’s forecast crop increase.

A draft contract and cool storage specifications were sent out to respondents, some of whom had returned proposals, Mr MacDonald said.

Contracts with some of these people should be signed by the end of September, he said.

In addition to contracting extra cool storage space, Wairarapa and Gisborne fruit would not be shipped from Napier this year if it could be avoided. Ships would call at Gisborne to collect apples and Wairarapa fruit would be shipped from Wellington.

The board was committed to cool storing growers’ fruit, but was trialing use of private storage to cope with increased future demand.

Mr MacDonald said he would like to achieve a balance of board-owned and contract storage.

While the board had no immediate plans to build new cool stores, it was possible one room in a dry store at the board’s Whakatu depot would be converted to cool storage.

Efficiencies had been applied to previous storage practices and more fruit could be kept in a given area than was formerly the case, he said.

In the space occupied by last year’s 6.3-million carton crop, 7-million cartons could be stored now, he said.

The board had not traditionally contracted extra storage space, although it had leased stores before which it ran with its own staff.

Auckland was the only North Island growing region with board storage facilities in excess of next year’s expected crop. The board’s South Island cool stores were under less pressure than those in the North Island, he said.

New chief for sector

A new chairperson for Hawke’s Bay Fruit-growers’ Association’s pipfruit sector committee will be chosen tonight.

Eight committee members were elected from 14 nominees on August 11. Tonight’s meeting will be the new committee’s first.

Former sector chairman Brian D’Ath was returned to the committee but has made himself unavailable to take on a sixth consecutive year as chairman.