Fruit imports freed up

Press, 13 November 1985, Page 1

Fruit imports freed up

Wellington reporter The importation of fresh fruit will be opened to competition. The Government has negotiated an end to the monopoly on the importing and distribution of oranges, bananas, citrus fruit, pineapples, and grapes, held since 1951 by the Welling-ton-based public company, Fruit Distributors, Ltd. From next year, any importer will be able to bring in bananas from Western Samoa, Niue, Tokelau, and the Cook Islands. Fruit Distributors will continue to have an obligation to buy all bananas not taken up from the four

island countries which make up the Pacific Forum, and also from Tonga.

The firm will retain its monopoly on banana imports from other sources, including Australia, and will also keep its monopoly on oranges from sources other than the Pacific Forum island countries and Australia. Orange imports from the latter two origins will be opened to anyone. The general manager of Fruit Distributors, Mr M. R. Dossor, said last evening that the company was happy with the new arrangements, which had been

discussed with the Government for the last 14 months.

Mr Dossor said the mono- & contract provided for a [nation after five years notice, and the Government was now exercising this provision. It had also negotiated arrangements for freeing up the import trade within the five years. The Acting Minister of Agriculture, Mr Colman, said yesterday that control of the final retail selling prices of bananas and oranges would now be considered a separate issue to the monopoly import arrangements. Under the agreement with Fruit Distributors, pineapples, grapes and citrus fruits other than oranges would also be freed from monopoly, he said.

Internal distribution restrictions on all the fruits, including oranges and bananas, will be removed, as well as Government control on the charges, commissions and dividends of firms involved in the trade. Mr Dossor said the changes would remove many of the obligations and restrictions which his firm had faced, and it accepted the prospect of competition. The arrangements would continue to ensure market access for bananas from the small Pacific countries, which was the main reason for establishing the monopoly agreement, he said.