Winegrowers warned after complaints

BY  - The Marlborough Express Last updated 13:00 10/06/2010SharePrint Text Size 2 commentsRelevant offers
 The Commerce Commission has told New Zealand Winegrowers it went beyond reasonable bounds by telling its members to limit the amount of grapes they harvested.

The commission investigated after receiving three complaints about New Zealand Winegrowers' conduct during the 2010 harvest, a commission spokeswoman said.

It said yesterday it had advised the industry group to be careful about how it makes recommendations to its members.

The spokeswoman said the group had gone beyond making recommendations.

New Zealand Winegrowers chairman Stuart Smith said he believed the commission's statement cleared the group of any wrongdoing.

But the spokeswoman said: "[The commission] would not issue compliance advice for nothing."

She would not comment on the details of the complaints or where in the country the complaints came from.

The commission gave New Zealand Winegrowers a compliance advice letter which said it could not go beyond making recommendations to its members, and it must make it clear to members that it was up to individual business owners to decide how to act on those recommendations.

The commission sends letters of advice to inform people about the law and prevent possible breaches when there might have been a minor breach of the law, according to the commission's website.

Compliance advice is the lowest form of action the commission can take other than no action at all.

Mr Smith said he did not know why complaints had been made to the commission about the association. He said he was happy the investigation was over and said the association had been excused of wrong-doing.

Growers had come to the association for guidance after the 2008 harvest created an over-supply of grapes which had damaged the market, he said.

"The industry ran into quite an issue and produced more than the market could absorb which led to a lot of problems."

Big harvests in 2008 and 2009 flooded the market, with 285,000 tonnes of grapes brought in each year. The harvests coincided with the international economic slump.

After the 2009 vintage the association estimated how much supply the market could cope with, and passed that information on to its members, he said.

In Marlborough, some winegrowers were vocal in their concern that others in the industry would sell excess wine in bulk, damaging the region's premium wine reputation and lowering prices.

The association told its members in a series of industry meetings before the 2010 harvest that the market could handle only 265,000 tonnes in the next vintage.

Ad Feedback Growers were also advised to limit production through methods such as laying two rather than four canes during pruning.

"We were advising our members ... the members asked the association how much the market could sustain and we gave them the information, which is our role," he said.

He said the association did not advise members not to sell to bulk wine producers, but it did point out that doing so was "giving our competitors a stick to beat us with".'