Our Trustees
The Trust was established in 1985 with seed funding from the New Zealand Fruitgrowers Federation.
The founding Trustees of the Trust were the Directors of the Federation. This continues to this day.
As the Federation no longer trades the sole duty of the Directors is that of Trustee of the New
Zealand Fruitgrowers Charitable Trust.
Election of Trustees
There are 5 directors who are elected by levy paying fruit growers in the 5 major fruit growing regions
being:
- Auckland/Northland
- Waikato/Bay of Plenty
- Gisborne/Hawkes Bay
- Nelson/Marlborough
- Canterbury/Otago
Directors are elected for a 3 year term.
Directors must be levy paying fruit growers in the region in which they are standing.
Directors must be nominated by 2 levy paying fruit growers in the region they are standing in.
Regional elections are held in rotation with Waikato/Bay of Plenty and Canterbury/Otago one year
with Auckland/Northland and Gisborne/Hawkes Bay the next year with Nelson/Marlborough
following.
Current Trustees
Auckland/Northland – Rick Curtis
Rick began growing in 1984 on a mixed citrus and green kiwifruit orchard. Grafted kiwifruit to gold variety 16A in 1998 and then to G3 after the PSA outbreak.
Rick is a past chairman of Citrus NZ, a long time committee member and chair of the Kerikeri Fruitgrowers Society and was a board member and chairman of the Kerikeri Irrigation Company.
With the Citrus orchard recently sold Rick continues to grow G3 kiwifruit in Kerikeri.
Waikato/Bay of Plenty – Andrew Fenton
Andrew is a kiwifruit and avocado grower from Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty.
He began fruit growing in 1974 when the kiwifruit industry was in its infancy and has been involved
extensively as a fruit grower on various industry positions during his 45 plus years including being elected
the inaugural President of Horticulture NZ. He was elected to the Fruitgrowers Federation in 1997
and currently is its President and also Chairman of the NZ Fruitgrower’s Charitable Trust. He is
Chairman of the Huddart Parker Building Ltd. He is a board director of the Horticultural Export
Authority (HEA) and of Kiwifruit New Zealand (KNZ) that are both statutory and regulatory industry
positions. He has recently retired as a director of produce company Market Gardeners (NZ) Ltd. and
La Manna Premiere Group (Aus) after 18 years on those boards. He continues to grow kiwifruit on
two orchards in the BOP.
Andrew is a Life Member of Horticulture New Zealand.
Gisborne/Hawkes Bay – Leon Stallard
Leon was elected to the role of Trustee of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers Charitable Trust in 2013.
Originally from Taranaki, Leon graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Psychology
from Auckland University.
For the past 26 years he has been a full time apple grower based in Hawkes Bay.
Prior to this he has worked for a number of Corporate Company’s in New Zealand and Australia.
He has a solid background in representing the fruit growing Industry. Having been a Director of
Horticulture New Zealand for a period of 6 years, he has recently stepped down from this position.
For the past 22 years Leon is a member the Hawkes Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association during which time
he was the President for 9 years. He currently represents the fruit growing Industry on the Hawkes
Bay Fire and Emergency Advisory Committee and the Hawkes Bay Fruitgrowers’ Charitable Trust.
In 2019 Leon was awarded the inaugural Hawkes Bay Horticulturist of the year, as well as receiving a
Hastings District Council Civic award for services to Education and Youth in the Horticulture Industry
and more recently a New Zealand Local Hero Award for services for the Community.
Leon is a Life Member of Horticulture New Zealand.
Nelson/Marlborough – Richard Easton
Appointed as a Trustee to the Trust in 2018.
He has a long involvement in the Horticultural Industry in local and national entities.
Past recipient of the Bledisloe Cup (1980) for the outstanding contribution to fruit growing in NZ.
Richard is still an active fruit grower in the Motueka region growing and packing apples within the
Family Business Wairepo Holdings Ltd.
With his wife Joyanne they pioneered the Peony industry in the Nelson region. Peonies are still part
of the family business local and export.
Richard has a Diploma in Horticulture (Distinction) from Massey University 1969.
He served in the NZ Army in S.E. Asia between 1966-67 -68 with units of the 1st Battalion RNZIR.
Canterbury/Otago – Earnscy Weaver
Earnscy has a lifetime involvement with the fruit industry. Earnscy grew up on the 3rd generation
family property in Earnscleugh Central Otago. Following completion of his education at Lincoln he
has subsequently spent his working life in the fruit growing industry. He commenced his fruit
growing career on the orchard and then moved into the corporate world of horticulture. He left this
for a career in consultancy and then completed the circle with my wife in 2016 establishing a small
cherry block near Alexandra.
Along the way he has contributed to the industry initially through the Earnscleugh Fruitgrowers
Association and then representing the Association on the Otago Advisory Committee which
morphed into the Otago Regional Fruitgrowers Committee. He now is a member of the Central
Otago Fruitgrowers Association.
For some years he was a member of the Summerfruit New Zealand executive and chair of the R&D
committee for several years. Along the way he was a founding Director of the grower co-operative
Seasonal Solutions Co-op Ltd. I have been honoured with life membership of both Summerfruit New
Zealand and Horticulture New Zealand.
Earnscy is a Life Member of Horticulture New Zealand.