They were not, in fact, just ‘Horticentre’ banners; they were ‘Horticentre Trust’banners. So where does this trust come from and what does it do?  Many of us have memories long enough to remember ‘Veg Gro Supplies Ltd’ the trading arm of the ‘Auckland Vegetable & Produce Growers Society’.  The society wound up in 2008 due to falling membership; but nobody owned the substantial trading business. This resulted in the formation of the ‘NZ Horticentre Charitable Trust’, with Horticentre Ltd the trading arm of and owned by, the Trust. Whilse the two run separately, for the regulatory reporting purposes they are combined as the ‘Horticentre Group’.

Structure & Objectives

Most Charitable Trusts receive their funds from donations, but in an unusual situation, the Horticentre ‘Trust’ receives its money from the proceeds of Horticentre Ltd’s trading. It’s interesting to note that under this scheme no growers’ hard earned money goes as dividends to city, overseas or other shareholders, it goes back to benefit kiwi horticulture. The objectives of the trust are to benefit NZ horticulture by way of research, training & education, technology transfer, scholarships and disaster relief.

Difficulties

However, being a charitable trust is not all smooth sailing; there are about 25,000 charitable trusts in NZ, but due to a few dubious ones set up to avoid tax or for political lobbying, charitable trusts are subjected to intense scrutiny by Internal Affairs [especially those with day-to-day trading like Sanitarium and Horticentre Ltd]. Hence the Horticentre Trust adheres strictly to the rules and objectives laid down and the recently added compliance of compulsory financial auditing is really costing this trust and puts about $50k each year into the hands of accountants. This could have gone back to benefit the horticultural communities it came from.

Beneficiaries

Currently annual grants from this charitable trust total just over $100k and is roughly allocated back to horticultural sectors according to how much support they give Horticentre Ltd. The fruit and vegetable industries receive approximately $60k per year through Hort NZ’s ‘Young Grower of the Year’ [YGOTY] sponsorship and their regional/sector competitions.

In addition, there is approximately $20k allocated to Massey and other Universities for horticultural scholarships. There is $40k allocated to a kiwifruit research project over four years, and $20k to a wine grape research project over two years. There are also smaller one-off allocations for research, scholarships, seminars, and visiting overseas technical visitors, etc.

The NZ Flower Growers Association has been fortunate to receive $7,000 so far, which has enabled us to put on the informative conferences we have had over the last three years.

Managing Body

The trust is managed by a board of trustees, made by rotation of current and past growers associated with the now ceased ‘Auckland & Vegetable Produce Growers Society’ – along with the trust solicitor.