Two outspoken contenders have failed in their bids to win election to the Zespri board at its annual meeting at Baycourt.

Robert Knyvett, who campaigned on achieving better returns for green growers, and Tom Wilson, who had been critical of Zespri's handling of the Chinese customs case, didn't manage to unseat chairman Peter McBride and board member Bruce Cameron at yesterday's election.

Robert Knyvett and Tom Wilson failed in their bids for election to Zespri's board.

Peter was returned with an 87.56 per cent majority and Bruce with 72.73 per cent. The appointment of new independent director Jonathan Mason received 99.31 per cent support from growers.

Before Wednesday's annual meeting Tom Wilson described Zespri's conviction in China for smuggling as shameful and suggested it could lead to calls for investigations by the Serious Fraud Office or the Financial Markets Authority.

Following the election results, Tom says he had been asked to stand by growers who wanted a message delivered to the board.

'Growers have made their decision (regarding the election) and I respect that. I gave the election my best effort and delivered a message to the board. What the board decides to do with that now is up to it.”

Robert had called for Zespri to change its focus to green kiwifruit and three on and off-shore strategies to improve fruit quality and handling, which he said could return up to $7 a tray to growers over the next three years.

'I should be licking my wounds but I'm not,” says Robert.

'I highlighted that there are huge savings to be made and I hope the board looks into those.

'From the outcome of the vote I think growers believe the single desk is more important than their earnings, and the owners of the top performing 2000ha of green kiwifruit are obviously happy with their incomes and I accept that.”

But it was obvious the 350 growers who attended the meeting had no appetite for change as they not only returned the incumbent board members, but also gave 90 per cent support to all the other resolutions put to the meeting.

While some had predicted this year's annual meeting could be fiery, given that last week Zespri lost its appeal over customs charges against its subsidiary in China, question time revealed very little dissention.

Zespri received no financial benefit from the underpayment of customs duties by its importers in China, Peter told the meeting. While the appeal against conviction had been lost, the legal process was on-going as was support for the Zespri staff member now in prison in China.

But Peter says the customs case would have no impact on Zespri's future in China which, subject to supply, is forecast to be Zespri's largest market by 2018.

While the industry's path out of Psa remains uncertain, it has made tremendous progress since 2010, when the disease was first confirmed in New Zealand.

'We have come a long way, learnt a lot and taken some really positive steps to returning the industry to growth again.

'This spring will be a critical time in understanding how well we are doing, which is why we say there is cautious optimism in the industry rather than stating categorically that we are on the path to recovery.”

Zespri CEO Lain Jager says the enthusiastic market reaction to the first commercial quantities of the new Zespri Gold variety, known as SunGold, was great news for the industry. SunGold is the newly-commercialised variety the industry has moved to after Psa had devastated the original Hort16A Zespri Gold variety.

'Our customers' enthusiasm to grow their gold sales gives us confidence in this category as we recover from Psa and rebuild our gold volumes to levels higher than before Psa. Our strategy is to deliver the world's leading portfolio of kiwifruit products.”

Zespri will continue to invest in developing new varieties, accelerate its 12-month marketing programme and continue to refine supply chain operations to achieve this goal.