20 July 2007

by Tracey Roxburgh

NEW ZEALAND summerfruit growers needed to think outside the square and be more like their counterparts growing tomatoes, delegates at the 13th annual Summerfruit New Zealand conference in Queenstown heard yesterday.
    More than 140 delegates from throughout New Zealand and Australia attended the two-day conference at the Copthorne Hotel, which included a presentation from Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope.
    Yesterday morning Retail Strategies Ltd senior consultant Mal Scrymgeour said the biggest obstacle fruitgrowers faced was understanding how retailers thought.
    While the public was the ultimate customer, it was the supermarket the growers had to please, and the growers needed to enhance the value of their product, Mr Scrymgeour said.
    He used the example of tomatoes, explaining that in Australia at Woolworths 20 years ago there were only two varieties, now there are 18.
    Tomato growers package their product, ensuring what the customer buys is in pristine condition, and also brand their product — two things fruitgrowers in New Zealand don’t do. Mr Scrymgeour said supermarkets also wanted to reduce costs as much as they could, often cutting out the middle man, so the further the grower could get up the supply chain, the better.
    The transtasman terms alignment aimed to cut the cost of business as much as possible — to the point it was cheaper to by Fosters products in New Zealand than in Australia, where it was produced, he said.
    The result was supermarkets threatening to buy the product in New Zealand and import it back to Australia to sell it cheaper, unless the company matched the New Zealand price across the Tasman.
    Another tip Mr Scrymgeour gave the growers was to set up orchards in other parts of the world, as kiwifruit growers had done, so supermarkets would have a year-round supply of fresh fruit, even if it wasn’t in season in New Zealand.
    ‘‘Supermarkets are your friend. They understand your end consumer and they will give them exactly what they want.
    ‘‘They are the gate-keeper — keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If they can sell the same product at a greater price and shift more of it, it’s called Happy Land.’’