New Zealand kiwifruit export season drawing to an early close due to a smaller crop this year. Photo / Alan Gibson
New Zealand kiwifruit export season drawing to an early close due to a smaller crop this year. Photo / Alan Gibson
China may have been shy lately about buying our dairy products, but kiwifruit sales there have been “outstanding” at a seasonal festival, says global marketer Zespri.
In an update to its 2500 New Zealand growers, the company said sales in China during a mid-autumn festival were 8 per cent upon last season at 4.4 million trays, putting Zespri on track to complete sales in the country early next month.
Chief operating officer Jason Te Brake said final charter shipments of this season’s New Zealand fruit had been discharged at ports in Tokyo and Kobe, Japan, and in South Korea, with good progress being made on sales.
As at the end of last week, 128.3 million trays across all kiwifruit varieties had been delivered, 94 per cent of the season’s full crop. This compared to 138 million trays or 84 per cent at the same time last year.
The difference is due to this season’s crop being significantly down on the previous year due to wild weather impacts and the industry having to address a concerning fruit quality issue.
Te Brake said Zespri had just over five million trays of Zespri SunGold fruit and a little more than three million trays of Zespri green left to sell. This compared to 11 million and 16 million respectively at the same time last season.
The smaller crop means the New Zealand kiwifruit season closes earlier than usual this year. Te Brake said there had been a steady uplift in New Zealand fruit sales rates to accelerate the close out of the season.
“Europe has seen a good uplift in sales in recent weeks and is in its final few weeks of sales alongside the US and Japan.”
Zespri is now gearing up for the Northern Hemisphere harvest season. Its contracted growers there are expected to produce a record crop of 29 million trays or just over 100,000 tonnes, compared to 24 million trays last season.
“The increase in volume this season is largely from SunGold kiwifruit where improved growing conditions have increased yields and new production,” Te Brake said.
Zespri is now gearing up for a record crop from its Northern Hemisphere growers.
Bay of Plenty-based Zespri contracts growers in France, Italy, Greece, South Korea and Japan as a seasonal counter-point to New Zealand production, enabling the company’s strategy of having Zespri-branded kiwifruit on offshore retail shelves all year round.
Last season’s Zespri offshore crop was also impacted by weather events including extreme heat, which affected fruit size, yield and quality.
Zespri has partnerships with around 1500 offshore growers and suppliers, forged over more than 20 years.
The company last month said this season’s green fruit northern sales volumes were expected to remain steady on last season, but SunGold sales were projected to lift by 25 per cent.
Zespri, which had global sales of $4 billion-plus in the 2023 financial year, is owned by present and past New Zealand growers. The company has the statutory right to export all New Zealand kiwifruit, except to Australia.
Andrea Fox joined the Herald as a senior business journalist in 2018 and specialises in writing about the dairy industry, agribusiness, exporting and the logistics sector and supply chains.
