Two former Chinese partners are suing New Zealand's single desk kiwifruit exporter for NZ$33.5 million (US$28.21 million), according to a report by ONE News.

The sum relates to three cases reportedly brought by Shanghai Neuhof Trade Company and Shanghai Hui Zhang Logisitic Limited in the Auckland High Court on Friday.

Neuhof's former chairman Liu Xiongjie is serving a jail term in China for fraudulent declarations to customs for kiwifruit imports, which also led to a US$760,000 fine against the Zespri's China-based subsidiary, Zespri Management Consulting Corporation (ZMCC) and a five-year jail term for its employee Joseph Yu.

A statement of claim obtained by ONE News says the import companies built a multimillion dollar cool store facility in China at Zespri's request to handle kiwifruit imports.

In December, Liu's nephew and Auckland-based businessman Jhun Si told www.freshfruitportal.com that Zespri's communications with the public were inconsistent with Neuhof's experience of a kiwifruit seizure that took place in Shanghai in 2011.

"What we know is that 151 containers did get locked up and a bond was paid by Neuhof, and that bond has still not been reimbursed by customs to Neuhof," he said.

"We were only able to get 20% of that sold as second grade fruit, and 80% had to be thrown away, and we had to get truckloads of them dumped. There were trucking fees and Neuhof paid everything.

"We don’t take credits from the ultimate revenue, we just pay a rebate. In the same case, customs tax is not payable by Neuhof, it's payable by Zespri."

He also alleged that while Zespri claimed to have a new partnership in China in 2012, during that time it was still doing business with the Neuhof family business but under a different name.

"In 2011 and 2012, Neuhof were trying to show their commitment to Zespri to say that we can overcome this obstacle, but Zespri just wanted to get themselves out of trouble by painting Neuhof as black as they can."

A Zespri spokesperson told ONE News the allegations date back to last decade and the case had already been thrown out by Chinese courts.

"They were thrown out by the Chinese courts and we expect the New Zealand courts will do the same," the spokersperson was quoted as saying.

www.freshfruitportal.com