Thanks to all those summerfruit growers who voted and took our calls in the lead up to the vote closing. We are heartened by the response and level of voter support for the levy, and Summerfruit NZ’s activities continuing.
The final, independently audited result is as follows:
|
Vote |
Head count |
Percentage of head count |
Weighted (value of sales) |
Percentage of weighting |
|
Yes |
99 |
94.29% |
$118,750,001 |
96.31% |
|
No |
6 |
5.71% |
$4,550,000 |
3.69% |
|
Total |
105 |
|
123,300,001 |
|
The voting return was 47.95%, which represents 105 votes received from 219 eligible Summerfruit NZ growers.
What happens next
Summerfruit NZ will make an application to the Minister of Agriculture for the commodity levy to continue for another six years, from August 2026, when the current order expires.
Our application will be reviewed by the Ministry for Primary Industries, who in turn, will make a recommendation to the Minister of Agriculture.
We plan to have our application to MPI by the start of October 2025, giving them a good amount of time to review the application and make their recommendation.