The 2024 kiwifruit season has been the best yet, with a record crop of 193 million trays.
The 2024 kiwifruit season has been the best yet, with a record crop of 193 million trays.
The 2024 kiwifruit harvest has crept ever closer to the magic 200 million tray mark.
A record 193m trays were produced in the almost-completed season, making it the largest crop yet to have been picked.
The 2024 crop comes in stark contrast to 2023′s meagre yield. Poor pollination, wind, flooding, hail and cyclones reduced the crop size and only 133m trays were exported.
The record levels are at least in part due to ideal weather before and during the harvest on many orchards. This, combined with sufficient labour supply, has meant kiwifruit has been picked off the vines in an orderly manner over the past three months.
Paengaroa grower and New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI) executive board member Tammy Hill, who lost about two hectares of green kiwifruit vines in the January 2023 floods, says 2024 has been a great season.
“It’s been the best crop we’ve ever had, and we are really pleased about that. By all accounts for the industry, except for our friends down in Hawke’s Bay, it’s been a great season. The weather’s been amazing and the labour has been excellent.”
She says it is easier to look to the future from such a positive position than it was after the difficulties of the 2023 season.
“Every grower I have spoken to has had an increase in tray numbers from the previous year and has better fruit and more of it.
“And the flow-on effect is significant [for the local economy].”
Attention now turns to winter pruning and, once the per-tray price is known, planning for the future.
“We are about to start replanting everything we lost in the January floods last year,” says Tammy.
“It’s a really exciting time of the season, it’s kind of like New Year’s, a time to start again and hope we can get another good crop.”
Growers are now waiting for the prices Zespri can attract in overseas markets for their fruit so they can firm up plans.
“It gives you a really good idea where you are at for the next 12 months. You can look at what your orchard needs – whether it needs more shelter or a frost fan or you need to make some changes to your irrigation or whatever it allows you. You know where you are at for the next 12 months so you can plan and budget.
“Equally, we are getting into our winter pruning now and once again labour is looking pretty promising, there are plenty of people around.”
Trevelyan Pack & Cool managing director James Trevelyan. Photo / NZME
Along with weather and labour, Trevelyan’s Pack & Cool managing director James Trevelyan says a lack of explosive fruit was one of the contributing factors to the good season.
It had been an increasingly common problem over the past four seasons, with fruit collapsing when bins were emptied, causing staining across other fruit.
“That fruit did not present [this season] and I’m not smart enough to know why,” he says.
James has been involved in the industry for more than 50 years.
“My overarching comment, and I’ve done many seasons now, is this season was always going to be our biggest ever and I have to say it’s probably been one of our easiest.”
He says a dry autumn helped with fruit presenting in very good condition to be packed, and there have been no issues with finding labour.
“We had the lowest turnover of staff and they were nothing short of amazing.”
He says decisions by Zespri also helped.
“They changed the maturity at the start of the season that allowed us to start sooner rather than later.”
While he says he is struggling to remember such a good season, he sounds a note of caution.
“We don’t want to get it out of balance. It’s been fantastic for the industry and we should enjoy the moment but we need to ask why it’s been so good and take learnings.”
He says the industry needs to be flexible and prepare for past difficulties such as weather events potentially returning.
Picking contractor Jack Koers, who has been operating as JK Contracting for four seasons, says this has been his most enjoyable season to date.
Operating three teams with a total of 45 pickers, he says the 2024 season has been a massive one for Te Puke and the industry.
“Through the peak, we had some pretty tired staff but they were still coming to work. They knew there was an end goal and light at the end of the tunnel.”
He also commends industry-wide efforts to attract people to work in the sector.
“As far as recruiting goes, there was a good amount of interest from some good people wanting to pick and, from that point of view, whatever is happening in marketing around the place to push staff towards this industry, it seems to be working.”
He says backpackers and locals were happy and ready to work.
Seeka confirmed the completion of its kiwifruit harvest this week, announcing a significant increase in Class 1 kiwifruit trays packed this season.
In total, 43 million trays were packed by Seeka this season, compared with 29.8m in 2023.
Seeka chief executive Michael Franks says the 44 per cent increase is a pleasing recovery after two very challenging years caused by weather events.
“Our facilities efficiently processed the additional volume which was well within our capability.”
While the increased number of trays packed is a signal of a return to profitability, he says it is too early to accurately predict the financial outcome and to be able to provide reliable financial guidance.
“We remain focused on maximising operational earnings, debt reduction, and achieving financial leverage targets. We would like to thank all growers, suppliers, contractors and staff for their efforts in concluding the 2024 New Zealand kiwifruit harvest.”
New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated chief executive Colin Bond. Photo / Quinn O'Connell
New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI) chief executive Colin Bond says the successful harvest is a result of great teamwork across the supply chain.
“I would like to thank the thousands of pickers and packers as well as the countless other workers who have rolled up their sleeves over the last year and worked diligently to create a successful harvest for our industry. The fruits of their labour have a flow-on effect to the wider communities who also profit from our success.”
Despite gaining strong per-tray returns over the past two years, poor yield has hurt growers financially.
The low orchard yields, combined with increasing costs, have meant many growers are under the pump to keep their businesses afloat.
The industry has worked collaboratively to resolve fruit-quality issues and the expectation that they should now be largely resolved will become apparent towards the end of this year, he says.
The previous best harvests were 184m trays in 2021 and 175m in 2022.
The New Zealand supply is forecast to increase to 208m trays by 2028.
