Posts Tagged “Zespri 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’s 2022 export program is underway, with the first 1.15 million trays of kiwifruit now on their way to Japan.
The MV Solent Star is the first of a planned 72 ships set to deliver a crop estimated to be over 190 million trays (or 680,000 MT) of fruit to Zespri’s global markets, according to a company statement.
Zespri Chief Global Supply Officer Alastair Hulbert said that “demand for Zespri Kiwifruit is incredibly strong across our global markets and this season we’re expecting another large and great-tasting crop of fruit,”
“We’re looking at exporting more than 115 million trays of SunGold kiwifruit and around 70 million trays of Green in 2022, and this season also marks our first commercial volumes of Zespri RubyRed kiwifruit which will be available to consumers in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China,” he added.
While global demand for kiwifruit remains strong, the industry is facing a number of headwinds this season given the ongoing impact COVID-19 is having on labor availability.
Port congestion is a matter that has company officials on alert, the statement said.
In total, Zespri expects to undertake four charter sailings to North Europe, 12 to the Mediterranean, six to the US West Coast and 50 to Zespri’s Asian markets, and to send around 20,000 containers of kiwifruit this season.
“The continued use of charter vessels will be important in our ability to avoid much of the congestion we’re seeing at container ports, and we’re also looking at new options this season such as partnering with T&G Global to co-ship fruit to North America,” Hulbert said.
The first shipment under these conditions is expected for April.
The 2022 season has the potential to be another record-breaking year with more kiwifruit produced than ever before. A forecast of at least 190 million trays will need to be harvested, overtaking last year’s record of over 177 million trays. On average, each tray has around 30 pieces of kiwifruit.