Ōpōtiki grower wins 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award
Brett Wotton, an Eastern Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor, has won the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for his work to support lifting fruit quality across the industry.
A gala dinner at Mercury Bay Park in Mount Maunganui on October 22 will bring together growers, past and present, as well as friends of the industry.
The event will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Single Desk structure which underpins industry success, 30th anniversary of grower advocacy organisation NZ Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated and 25th anniversary of Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring Act allowing Zespri’s commercial operations.
NZKGI says the path to today’s success for New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry has been anything but plain sailing.
“The story of our iconic piece of kiwiana began in the early 1900’s when a small number of orchards were formed, however it wasn’t until the 1960’s when the commercial kiwifruit industry really started to take off.
“Many of the growers from this time were instrumental in creating the backbone of the industry as we know it today and all growers, past and present, as well as friends of the industry, will be coming together at a gala dinner to reconnect with each other and appreciate how far the industry has come.
“The dinner will be an opportunity for attendees to network and hear from some of the industry’s pioneering growers who applied their leadership and negotiating skills at some significant personal cost to lay the foundations for the highly successful industry we have today.”
Kiwifruit grower Hendrik Pieters is one of these growers and recalls the early days when he was in his twenties, developing kiwifruit blocks and later joining the Te Puke Fruitgrowers Association.
By the 1980’s production was booming.
“There was a lot of discussion about marketing and exporters, and I formed views on the need for change. Growers were at the beck and call of exporters and retailers and I believed growers should have more control over marketing, as well as growing”, says Pieters.
With an abundance of kiwifruit and declining demand overseas, the Kiwifruit Marketing Board was set up with the power to buy all kiwifruit for export. 2024 marks the 35th anniversary of the Single Desk structure under which kiwifruit is exported.
In 1992 and 1993, kiwifruit had to be dumped when the Kiwifruit Marketing Board set prices too high. Growers had enormous debt and concern and something needed to change. Hendrik was to play a lead role in getting growers together and agreeing to the formation of the Working Party to represent their interests which would later become known as New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc. (NZKGI). The organisation which now represents the collective voice of some 2,800 kiwifruit growers came to fruition in 1994, 30 years ago.
Later, in September 1999, the Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring Act was passed which, from 1 April 2000, established the Kiwifruit Marketing Board’s commercial operations, Zespri, as a company with shares tradable amongst producers. 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring Act.
Pieters says that the kiwifruit industry has not achieved their successes, including recovering from the vine disease Psa-V by mistake.
“The Zespri model we have is something magic and must be protected”, he says.
Tickets for this event are expected to sell quickly and are available here: https://www.nzkgi.org.nz/30-years-of-nzkgi-gala-dinner/
