The results from a Colmar Brunton poll commissioned by fruit exporter Turners & Growers show New Zealanders think Zespri's near export monopoly on kiwifruit should end.

The Colmar Brunton Consumer Link Research Unit phone survey returned a result of 85 per cent of respondents favouring removal of the Zespri monopoly for kiwifruit exports beyond Australia.

See video below of Turners & Growers managing director Jeff Wesley talking on a Te Puke orchard about some new kiwifruit varieties.

Nationally, 85 per cent of respondents say the government should be promoting free and fair trade for all New Zealand kiwifruit exporters as it does for other exporters.

In light of the Psa disease outbreak, 82 per cent of respondents say the monopoly should be repealed and growers should be allowed to export varieties other than Zespri's.

Because New Zealand wants other countries to practise free and fair trade, 73 per cent of those responding to the survey say the monopoly is unfair.

The poll also reveals New Zealanders' concerns that Zespri is retaining monopoly powers while it plans to grow kiwifruit in competing countries.

About 62 per cent of survey respondents say the government should repeal Zespri's private kiwifruit monopoly given Zespri wants to grow kiwifruit in China and other countries which compete with New Zealand kiwifruit.

The poll finds 72 per cent of New Zealanders believe it is unfair for a private company and its private shareholders to reap the profits from an entire industry.

Zespri is not a cooperative like Fonterra, owned by suppliers, but a private company. Shares in Zespri are not linked to production, with as many as 30 per cent of growers unable to get shares in the company they are forced to supply fruit to.

The survey results back the call from the government's own taskforce, which is calling for Zespri's monopoly to go, says Turners & Growers chairman Tony Gibbs.

In its 2009 recommendations to government, the 2025 taskforce questioned a public policy that prevents more than a third of growers who wished to do so from selling their fruit abroad through other companies.

'As a country championing free trade, New Zealand has to be ‘squeaky clean' when it comes to its own affairs,” says Tony.

'New Zealand kiwifruit growers and owners are banned by their own country from exporting fruit which they own.”

The poll results are included in a letter to all MPs.

'We cannot ask other countries to remove trade barriers when all New Zealand kiwifruit growers are forced to sell through Zespri, and owners of non-Zespri kiwifruit varieties are banned from selling their fruit anywhere but Australia and New Zealand,” says Tony. 'New Zealand growers should have the right to choose which fruit they grow and who they sell to, especially considering there are now numerous innovative new kiwifruit varieties, while Zespri still only markets two.”

UPDATE: Read Zespri's response here.