A Te Puke pollen supplier that misled customers into thinking its pollen was sourced from New Zealand when it was imported from Chile has received a warning from the Commerce Commission and will not be prosecuted.

The commission alleges Kiwi Pollen was in breach of the Fair Trading Act, which prohibits false or misleading claims about the place of origin of goods.

In September and October 2010, Kiwi Pollen sold pollen imported from Chile, while at the same time making claims that gave its customers the impression that all of its kiwifruit pollen was sourced from New Zealand.

The commission's General Manager of Competition Kate Morrison says although most of Kiwi Pollen's product was sourced from New Zealand during that time, Kiwi Pollen did not tell its customers when it was also selling them imported pollen.

'In fact Kiwi Pollen's website continued to give the impression that all of its pollen was collected from properties in New Zealand.”

Kiwi Pollen has so far failed to answer SunLive's requests for comment on the commission's decision.

While Kiwi Pollen did nothing illegal in importing the pollen, the way that import was handled by the Ministry of Agriculture (now Ministry for Primary Industries) came in for criticism in the Sapere independent report into biosecurity practices following the outbreak of Psa-V.

The report stated import requirements for kiwifruit pollen were inadequate and were based on a scientific review that discounted the possibility of pollen as a vector for bacterial pathogens. MAF's response to a finding that live Psa could be detected on pollen from infected orchards was sub-standard and meant MAF missed an opportunity to initiate procedures to track the consignments of pollen that had already entered the country the report said.

President of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated Neil Trebilco believes Kiwi Pollen's decision to import pollen from Chile was unwise and that growers would have been unlikely to use it if they had known it had come from Chile.

'However, it hasn't been proven how Psa got to New Zealand and there is no proof it came here on pollen.”
Kiwi Pollen did not know Psa was in Chile at the time it imported the pollen and it is easy to make an assessment of the wisdom of actions in hindsight, says Neil.

The Commerce Commissions says that Kiwi Pollen repackaged the imported pollen, attaching ‘Kiwi Pollen New Zealand' labels to the new packaging. This reinforced the impression that the pollen was from New Zealand, particularly where there were no clear qualifications on its packaging, advertising material or website that some of its pollen was imported.

'Our investigation showed that kiwifruit growers consider the country of origin of pollen to be very important,” says Kate Morrison.

'Those customers who were supplied imported pollen were not aware of the fact it was imported and were denied the opportunity or ability to make an informed decision about whether to purchase it in the first place.”

In considering what action to take against Kiwi Pollen, the commission looked at the possible harm caused to customers and competitors by Kiwi Pollen's conduct. In particular, the commission looked into allegations that the imported pollen was a potential source of the Pseudomona syringe actinidiae (Psa) outbreak.

'We have examined information from numerous sources and have found there is no conclusive evidence to show that the imported pollen sold by Kiwi Pollen caused the Psa outbreak in New Zealand.

'We are not satisfied that competitors or customers suffered any provable loss or harm as a result of Kiwi Pollen's conduct. The conduct was short in duration and no longer continues, and it did not appear to be deliberate. For these reasons the commission has decided to warn Kiwi Pollen rather than prosecute.”

According to its website, Kiwi Pollen achieved Kiwifruit Vine Health Approved Pollen Producer status in November 2011.

'An independent audit by Quality Assure found Kiwi Pollen's operations adhere to the KVH Pollen Standard and Guideline, having robust systems and traceability. This ensures the risk of supplying pollen from a Psa-V infected orchard is minimised.”