We’ve made strong progress on improving grower ownership this year, with Zespri welcoming 327 new grower shareholders as a result of the 2025 Loyalty as Shares (LaS) and Dividends as Shares (DaS) offers. This increased the number of grower shareholders from 48 percent to 61 percent.
Following the LaS and DaS share issues, we proceeded with a buy-back to lessen the dilutionary impact, enable the return of some surplus capital to participating shareholders, and to provide a straightforward way for participating shareholders to exit or rebalance their investment.
The buy-back has now closed and the issue of 8.3m shares through LaS and DaS was partially offset by the buy-back and cancellation of 2.1m shares, thereby reducing the overall dilutionary effect. It also contributed meaningfully to our progress in reducing dry grower shareholding by reducing the total number of dry shareholders from 205 to 164.
| Goals | Targets |
|---|---|
| Improve the percentage of New Zealand producers that own Zespri shares (going wider) | At least 75 percent of New Zealand producers are Zespri shareholders by 2030 |
| Improve shareholder alignment (going deeper) | At least 60 percent of New Zealand producers hold shares at a ratio of between 0.5 and 2.0 shares per tray of production by 2030 |
| Seek to minimise shareholding for non-producing growers and/or those significantly overshared | The percentage of dry shares, and shares above the 6:1 cap, are below five percent by 2028 |
A New Zealand Producer is an entity that supplies fruit to Zespri.
Our industry is creating significant value for growers and shareholders; the outlook is positive, and there is strong demand in our markets.
We need to set ourselves up to capture this demand and return the benefits back to New Zealand growers. Part of this is aligning the commercial interests of growers, ensuring growers own their marketer, make commercial decisions together, and have a stake in the value created not just from their crop but from other sources of revenue.
It’s important that the grower base is aligned on commercial decisions we need to make, that we protect the Single Desk structure and with it the stability and unity of the industry, so that all growers benefit financially from our growth and support decisions that enable it into the future.
In a perfectly aligned scenario, every grower would be a Zespri shareholder and each grower’s percentage of shares would be the same as their percentage of the total crop supplied.
It’s impossible to achieve perfect alignment figures because the overall crop number and each grower’s production fluctuates, but we aim to keep the number of Zespri shares approximately in line with the average number of New Zealand trays so that the ratio of “shares owned : trays produced” is a workable estimate of a grower’s alignment.
While we’ve made a good start in lifting grower ownership of Zespri, we know there’s more work to be done. As we develop our 2035 strategy, a key focus is ensuring we capture the strong demand from our markets and enable all growers to have the opportunity to be part of the commercial decisions we need to make to capture and deliver value back to the New Zealand industry. LaS and DaS were a direct result of industry feedback, and discussions with growers are now considering what other options might assist in further lifting grower share ownership of Zespri.
Depending on the preferred options, we may need to look at things like voting on any constitutional changes at next year’s Annual Meeting, consulting special interest groups, and updating any Zespri systems or processes where required.
All the options on the table involve their own unique challenges and complexities but we need to find enduring solutions to avoid having to come back to the industry in another five years to try and address the issue again. Fixing it for good will mean we can maintain our focus on maximising value for growers into the future.
When Zespri was corporatised in 2000, all growers were issued shares; the industry was in alignment. Over time, shares have been bought and sold; growers have exited the industry but in some cases retained shares, others have come in and not bought and as a result the level of current growers owning shares has dropped and misalignment has been growing. The industry has also evolved significantly over that time, growing into the world-leading one it is today.
There has been an ongoing, industry-led effort to improve share alignment, including through the Kiwifruit Industry Strategy Project (KISP) finalised in 2018.
In 2025 we launched the Loyalty as Shares (LaS) and Dividends as Shares (DaS), initiatives that were designed to provide growers with the opportunity to become a shareholder or increase their shareholding without significant one-off payments, acknowledging that affordability and being able to access shares has been a key barrier to growers purchasing shares.
Conversations with the industry about increasing share alignment have been ongoing. From grower feedback so far, the below list of draft principles has been compiled and will guide the conversation going forward.
Zespri has now issued new shares to all growers who opted into the 2025 Loyalty as Shares (LaS) and Dividend as Shares (DaS) initiatives. The uptake has exceeded the targets set for this year, reflecting strong grower engagement and participation, and the potential impact of well-designed initiatives that address barriers to ownership and make the process simple for growers.
The LaS and DaS initiatives were designed to provide growers with another way to become a shareholder or increase their shareholding with out requiring significant one-off payments. This was done by giving growers an option to divert money owed by Zespri into Zespri Shares, eliminating the need to go through Lengthy AML processes to open accounts with Brokers or by having to find an off-market seller.
Learn more about LaS and DaS, and access helpful resources to guide you through the process on the page below.
The Zespri Shares team provides specialised support to the industry on everything shares related. If you have questions about shares or the share structure, please don't hesitate to ask. Email shares@zespri.com or call us on 07 572 6402.
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