Outdated technical standards for farm fertiliser were the weapon of choice between competitors Ballance and Quin disputing the validity of industry qualmarks applied to the other’s product in a fight over market share.
Farming in New Zealand has profited from imported phosphate fertilisers being applied to farmland: by hand, by spreader truck and topdressed from the air. To assist farmers, a quality mark system operates signalling solubility, and hence effectiveness. RPR (reactive phosphate rock for direct application) Fertmark branded fertiliser must satisfy a specified solubility test: the Citsol test. The lesser the solubility, the slower the fertiliser breaks down with a resulting reduced loss through leaching and run-off. Fertmark-branded RPR products can demand a premium price. It is generally accepted within the industry that the Citsol test is outdated. Because it is tied to the RPR Fertmark qualmark, Citsol became the relevant test in a fight over market share between Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd and Quin Environmentals (NZ) Ltd.
Ballance imports its phosphate rock from Peru. It objected when Quin advertised its Algeria import as ‘true’ RPR and ‘the best all-round RPR in the world.’ The product did not satisfy the Citsol solubility test, it said. Ballance sued. No damages were sought. It simply wanted the courts to uphold the integrity of the Fertmark qualmark, it said.
Justice Venning ruled Quin Environmentals in breach of the Fair Trading Act. Quin was ordered not to advertise its Algerian rock as RPR without further explaining it did not comply with the Fertmark Code. The product was not banned. Quin is free to compete in the market, provided it is made clear that it does not satisfy the Fertmark test when branded as RPR, Justice Venning said.
Quin in turn sued Ballance, claiming its Hi P RPR product was a non-compliant blend. Ballance blends waste phosphate rock into its Peruvian rock to reduce cadmium levels which would otherwise disqualify its Peru product from using the RPR qualmark. Justice Venning ruled Balance was not in breach; mixing phosphate rock with phosphate rock was not a ‘blend’ under the Fertmark rules.
The court was told Quin Environmentals new V2 product line does satisfy RPR test protocols; reducing levels of dolomite in its Algerian imports enabled V2 to pass the Citsol solubility test.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd v. Quin Environmentals (NZ) Ltd – High Court (31.7.20)
20.130