When a single buyer can end seven orchards’ contracts in one decision, why should the growers not band together and can the peaches themselves?

01 · The problem

One buyer ends seven orchards in a single decision

One buyer can end seven orchards’ contracts in a single decision, and the growers have no brand of their own to fall back on.

02 · Why now

Wattie’s has walked away. The trees have not

Wattie’s has just pulled its support for Golden Queen peaches in Hawke’s Bay. The orchards, the fruit and the season are all still there.

03 · The idea

Lucky Seven. The growers can their own peaches

Lucky Seven. The seven orchards band together and can their own peaches under their own name.

04 · Who it’s for

People who would rather the money reached the grower

People who buy canned peaches and would rather the money went to the growers than through a middleman that just dropped them.

05 · Instead of

Wattie’s, or no can at all

Wattie’s, or nothing.

06 · What it would take

Seven growers, one name, and a can of their own

The seven orchards would have to band together, agree on one name and one standard, and can their own peaches under it. It is a cooperative before it is a brand. This is what I would make it look like, not a plan anyone has agreed to.

07 · What would prove it wrong

Shoppers buy the cheapest can and the story does not repeat

If people take the grower-owned can once out of sympathy and then go back to whatever is cheapest, this is a gesture rather than a business. It also fails if the growers would rather hold any contract at all than run a brand themselves, which is a fair thing to want.