Posts Tagged “New Zealand kiwifruit exports”
Zespri has released its first full forecast for the 2024-25 kiwifruit season, with forecast per hectare returns up from last season for all categories, according to a news release.
The report predicts record levels for green and organic green.
With a total crop of more than 190 million trays to sell, Zespri was focused on finishing the second half of the season strongly, said Ted Brake . CEO of Zespri.
Zespri is headquartered in Auckland, New Zeland with its North American offices in Newport Beach, CA.
Brake said the latest forecast reflects both the strong season start and the competition seen more recently in markets, including from summer fruit.
“The industry put a lot of work into getting off to a really strong start to the season to meet early season demand and that’s set us up well in a year where we have a lot more fruit to sell,” Brake said in the release. “Although strong competition is always challenging around this time of the year, we’re already seeing signs that this fruit is moving off shelves and we expect this trend to continue over the next few weeks. The fact we’re on track for a strong lift in per hectare returns across all varieties this season, and record returns for green and organic green growers, is a testament to the hard work the industry has put in following a really challenging period.”
Increasing competition reinforced the importance of Zespri’s global supply strategy, set up by growers more than 20 years ago, Te Brake said. The strategy involves Zespri working with offshore growers in Italy, France, Japan, Korea and Greece to provide kiwifruit for 12 months of the year, allowing Zespri to have counter-seasonal supply in place to complement the New Zealand season and drive value for New Zealand growers, he said.
With the maximum 5,000 hectares of offshore SunGold plantings now allocated and the gap between supply and demand growing, the industry is discussing the potential expansion of its Zespri’s global supply program to protect value for the industry, the release said.
“The next stage of these conversations over the coming months will look at what a potential expansion of our [Zespri global supply] program might look like, as we make a decision as an industry on how ZGS can continue to deliver value for our industry,” Te Brake said.
Zespri says it is now seeking industry feedback on potentially expanding the current 5,000-hectare cap by up to 420 additional hectares of SunGold kiwifruit per year over six years across Italy, France, Japan, South Korea and Greece. Depending on the nature of those conversations over the next few months, Zespri may consider formally seeking grower support for expanding the Zespri global supply program via a producer vote, which would require 75% support to proceed, the release said.
Zespri, the New Zealand kiwifruit shipping giant, reports the 2024 kiwi season has the potential to be a year of strong growth across all kiwifruit offerings this year. The company is expecting to export about 193 million trays of kiwifruit to markets around the world.
While still early in the season, Zespri’s latest supply estimate reflects the positive growing conditions seen across New Zealand in recent months. This season’s crop will significantly increase the 133 million New Zealand trays shipped last season and up on the 175 million trays shipped in 2021.
“It’s been a far more settled growing environment compared to the last couple of seasons when growers were facing several challenges, including the impact of COVID-19, the significant labor shortage in 2022, and the many climatic events that New Zealand experienced in 2023,” Zespri reports.
“While it’s still early, the crop looks excellent and there’s a lot of excitement and optimism in the industry.
The company notes managing the increased volume of fruit throughout the supply chain and delivering consistently good quality fruit was the key consideration in the industry’s season planning process.
Zespri was closely monitoring the disruption to international shipping though Zespri was not affected by the disruption in the Red Sea, instead shipping via the Panama Canal.
Another record-breaking year of exports is expected in 2021 as
New Zealand kicks off its kiwifruit season.
Last year’s record of 157 million trays of export Green and Gold is expected to be topped, reports New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated.
The Gold variety is usually picked first, followed by Green kiwifruit in late March. Harvest peaks in mid-April and runs through until June.
Following the Green and Gold kiwifruit, Zespri’s sweet, the berry-tinged tasting Red kiwifruit, which goes primarily to supermarkets in New Zealand, will be exported to some overseas markets this year.
New Zealand has some 2,800 growers who produce kiwifruit across more than 32,000 acres of orchards between Kerikeri in the north and Motueka in the south.