Board appeals against crop certificate ruling

Press, 18 May 1989, Page 26

Board appeals against crop certificate ruling

The New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board and the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation have lodged an appeal against a High Court ruling on the board’s proposed transferable crop certificates (TCCs). The scheme was opposed by Apple Fields, the listed Christchurch-based agricultural group, and Styx Mill Orchard Partnership No. 6, and in a High Court decision earlier this year the TCC proposal was struck down.

The board put forward the TCC proposal last year

for crop certificates to growers as a means of meeting increased capital costs resulting from any increased production. However, Mr Justice Holland found that the proposal was anti-com-petitive and in breach of the Commerce Act. In announcing the appeal, the Apple Board’s chairman, Mr John McCliskie, said the question of any conflict between the Apple and Pear Marketing Act and the Commerce Act was "in my opinion,” too important to leave to one person’s interpretation. It was imperative that

the conditions under which the board traded were fully understood, and this was the main reason for the appeal, he said. If the court decision was reversed by the appeal, the matter of TCCs would be taken back to the industry for review. The board would not atempt to bulldoze the TCC scheme through and would discuss the matter further with its growers. The board and the Fruitgrowers’ Federation regarded the issue as one for the industry to determine. Mr McCliskie said