Our Communities

We have a commitment to be an industry where workers feel valued, safe and supported and are treated fairly  regarding wages, benefits, working hours and overall wellbeing. We want to make a positive contribution to people’s livelihoods and wellbeing, through the returns we provide to growers, the working conditions we provide for our people, and the contributions we make in our markets.

Safety and Wellbeing

Zespri and the wider kiwifruit industry strives for excellence in health, safety and wellbeing  management.

At Zespri, the Board, leadership and people are committed to the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone we work with. Guardianship is a core Zespri value and ensuring our people’s wellbeing provides the foundation for everything we do.

Our guiding safety and wellbeing principles are to:

• Provide a work environment that protects and enables our people to flourish by ensuring all physical and psychosocial risks are effectively identified and managed. We deliberately place priority on our fatal and material risks through robust management, monitoring and improvement.
• Bring attention to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our people where-ever they are in the world
• Work with all other entities in our industry through consultation, cooperation and collaboration to champion the safety and wellbeing of all industry workers.
• Measure our performance with carefully developed metrics set against our objectives that ensure we focus on what matters most and that we hold ourselves and, where appropriate others, to account for safety and wellbeing performance.
• Invest in and make sure we have fit for purpose systems and processes to exceed the requirements of health and safety laws and regulations in the locations we operate within.
• Actively engage with our people through our Global Safety and Wellbeing forums and take on good ideas, suggestions or feedback to continuously improve our overall safety and wellbeing maturity.

Across the kiwifruit industry, we aim to ensure the work we do across our value chain, supports people to be safe, healthy and well. We are committed to continually improve our collective industry performance and proactively manage hazards and risks arising from our undertakings and activities.

Our safety and wellbeing work, both at Zespri and in the kiwifruit industry, is underpinned by the following policies and programmes:

• Zespri Supplier and Partner Code of Conduct
• Zespri Code of Conduct
• NZKGI – Guide to finding seasonal work in the New Zealand Kiwifruit Industry
• Industry – Health & safety
• Zespri Safety & Wellbeing policy

Human Rights and Modern Slavery

Zespri is committed to looking after people and has set compliance standards that must be met to help protect people working within the kiwifruit industry.

All of our growers are required to meet the Good Agricultural Practice requirements which underpin everything we do on orchard, and must have a Global G.A.P GRASP (Global Good Agricultural Practice, Risk Assessment of Social Practices) certificate before supplying to Zespri.

The following policies set out the expectations we have of our suppliers:

• Zespri Social Responsibility
• Zespri Safety and Wellbeing policy
• Zespri Supplier and Partner Code of Conduct
• Zespri Code of Conduct
• Industry Zespri – Zespri GLOBAL G.A.P & GRASP
• NZKGI – Guide to finding seasonal work in the New Zealand Kiwifruit Industry
• Confidential Speak Up Line

Ethical Business Practices

Zespri does not tolerate or engage in bribery, corruption or unethical business practices.

The following policies set out these expectations:

• Zespri social responsibility policy
• Zespri Supplier and Partner Code of Conduct
• Zespri Policies

Fair Pay

Zespri and the wider kiwifruit industry is committed to paying fair and legal wages which also includes benefits, holidays and breaks. The kiwifruit industry is a year-round business with pay rates varying depending on the nature of the role.

Our expectation of our suppliers are included in these policies:

• Zespri social responsibility policy
• Zespri Supplier and Partner Code of Conduct
• KiwiFruit needs you
• NZKGI – Guide to finding seasonal work in the New Zealand Kiwifruit Industry

People Developement

At Zespri, we want all our people to have the opportunity to grow and develop skills that allow them to be better every day and perform to their potential.

We also want our people to have the opportunity to build and find the leader within themselves. We encourage and support our people, no matter their development stage, to participate in a series of internal leadership and development programmes that run throughout the year.

These programmes are designed around leading self and leading others which are anchored in our leadership framework. We have three core programmes that our people are able to participate in, Lead Zespri (introducing leadership at Zespri), Zespri Thrive (leading self) and Zespri Ignite (leading others and teams).

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

Freedom from discrimination is a human right and a fundamental right at work. Discrimination can impose unequal burdens on individuals or deny fair opportunities on the basis of individual merit.

There are a number of policies that set out what we expect of our suppliers:

• Zespri social responsibility policy
• Zespri Supplier and Partner Code of Conduct
• Zespri Code of Conduct

Zespri is committed to embracing the diverse mix of our people and supporting a fair, inclusive and equitable Zespri in which people feel a sense of belonging and meaningful contribution.

Healthy Lifestyle Programmes

Zespri defines Healthy Lifestyle Programmes as community activities or events that encourage or support healthy lifestyles. For example, this can include nutritional education programmes in schools, or the sponsorship of community sporting events.

Zespri achieved its Health lifestyle target at the end of 2022, with over 35 healthy lifestyle programmes delivered across 12 countries since 2020. 

Community Investment

Zespri’s aims to make a positive contribution to people’s livelihoods and wellbeing, through the returns it provides to growers, the working conditions and opportunities provided to its people, and the contributions made to the markets in which Zespri operates.

Zespri’s community investment programme has three pillars with which our partnerships are aligned.