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Financial carnage in the apple sector has intensified in recent weeks leaving growers, suppliers and creditors reeling, with millions owed to them by liquidated companies.
The latest failure has been the liquidation of the Kiwi Crunch enterprise, owing $20 million to the IRD.
However, Brydon Nisbet, president of Hawke’s Bay Fruit Growers Association and deputy chair of Hort NZ, maintains despite mounting failures, it is not a wider industry issue.
“All grower companies are uniquely different in the way they are set up and operated. Since 2020 the apple industry has faced some significant challenges, first navigating our way through the covid years, increasing on-orchard costs and then of…