The New Zealand kiwifruit industry - challenges and successes, 1960 to 1999 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University

Abstract

Throughout the 20th century, successive New Zealand governments have, to a greater or lesser degree, been involved in primary sector trading arrangements, while from time to time, the producers and growers of specific products have actively sought legislation to improve their returns in international markets. From the establishment of producer board structures for the meat, wool and dairy industries in the 1930s, to the Apple and Pear Industry in 1948 and then to the creation, forty years later, of the Kiwifruit Marketing Board, government policies for such statutory intervention have ranged from active encouragement to disapproval on the basis of free-market economics. In the 1960s, kiwifruit growers began to seek statutory intervention to support the development of their growing export business. Over the next 30 years, the industry’s leaders had to become directly involved in the development of legislative changes, as they sought to protect the interests of their growers. From the introduction of the Kiwifruit Licensing Authority in 1977, to the establishment of the Kiwifruit Marketing Board in 1988 and then to the creation of the grower owned Zespri Group in 1999, each piece of legislation was designed to help the industry to overcome successive threats and crises. This thesis investigates how the industry influenced these legislative changes and why it was so successful in acquiring and retaining the single-desk selling status despite the efforts of some politicians, officials, exporters and even growers and packhouses, to deregulate the business.