The legal action filed by the Turners & Growers Ltd. against the Kiwifruit marketer ZESPRI for the latter’s monopolistic export activities, has been rejected by the High Court.

All the three actions against the ZESPRI have been turned down by the judgment given by the High Court.

Turners & Growers accused ZESPRI for establishing monopoly by initiating collaborative actions with the Kiwifruit growers in New Zealand to increase its exports.

Moving ahead with the jurisdiction, the court expressed that if the Kiwi growers had any problems, they could have lodged their complaints with Kiwifruit Export Regulations 1999.

Lain Jager, ZESPRI Chief Executive stated that with the help of collaborative marketing, they can export at minimal costs, which benefits not only their shareholders but all the Kiwi growers including Turners and Growers to use export opportunities. Also, there are 17 Companies, which are their exporters.

He said, "The court today rejecting Turner and Growers' claims represents a natural juncture in its political campaign to break up the New Zealand kiwifruit industry”.

As per the Kiwifruit Export Regulations 1999, no other Company except ZESPRI, can export Kiwis, which the Turners and Growers termed as discriminatory. But, the allegations were not even supported by the Commerce Act and Bill of Rights Act.