Kiwifruit company Zespri is being sued for $33.5 million by its former Chinese import partners.
Local news agency ONE News, obtained a copy of the statement of claim, filed in the High Court in Auckland last Friday. The claim names two Chinese companies as plaintiffs against Zespri, which they say breached the trade relationship and wrongfully terminated a contract between the parties.
Shanghai Neuhof Trade Company and Shanghai Hui Zhang Logisitic Limited have listed three causes of action against the kiwifruit exporter and are seeking several millions in damages for each cause.
Zespri is claiming the allegations date back to last decade and the case has already come before the Chinese courts.
"These allegations relate to matters that happened last decade," a Zespri spokesperson said in a statement. "They were thrown out by the Chinese courts and we expect the New Zealand courts will do the same."
The allegations come more than a year after Zespri was convicted of smuggling in China, for under declaring customs duties. The company was fined close to a million dollars and had an employee jailed for five years.
The Chinese importer, Xiongjie Liu, was also found guilty of smuggling and sentenced to 13 years in jail.
Zespri ended its business relationship with the importers following the smuggling scandal but Mr Liu's family say he was simply following Zespri orders and has been made a scapegoat by the company. They are now seeking damages against the exporter.
The statement of claim says the importers built a multimillion dollar cool store facility in Shanghai, at Zespri's request, to handle kiwifruit imports from New Zealand.
Zespri is also the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation, which began in October last year. The details of that investigation have not been released and it is not known whether it relates to Zespri's Chinese operations.
