Cherry on top – exports reach record levels

With the tail of the season still to come, Smith said latest figures showed that volumes topped 4,000 tonnes on the back of Chinese New Year demand in east Asia, surpassing last year's 3,800 tonnes.

That was despite a slow start with exports down 20% early in the season.

Cherries remain the biggest export earner among the fruits under the Summerfruit umbrella, although Smith says there are niche markets for the others - apricots, peaches, nectarines, and plums - and there are "aspirations" to increase exports, particularly of apricots.

Smith said cherry yield and quality had been "largely favourable" for Central Otago growers despite some changeable weather conditions.

'"They had some late snow events, and there was some isolated frost damage, those sorts of things. So growers down there have really hat to work quite hard to nurture their fruit through."

Mark Pay, general manager of global marketing and sales for Cromwell-based NZ Cherry Corp, said the number of growing degree days was slightly behind last year, making the fruit a little late, with volume down slightly on forecast, but quality was exceptional.

The company's 40ha cherry orchard is New Zealand's largest fully climate-controlled netted orchard, producing for both domestic and export markets.

Pay said it was a season of two halves with a great Christmas demand "that always exceeds supply" and then the export market for Chinese New Year, which this year fell att the end of January.

While some cherry companies harvested early, sending slightly immature fruit to the market, NZ Cherry Corp chose to stand by quality and "do the right thing by the fruit," he said.

"Pricing held up right through until Chinese New Year."

But Pay said they faced the usual problems of securing seasonal labour and transport to export markets.

"We always get bumped for live seafood on the airlines.

"There were more options available this year, a few more flights available, so that was good. But it was still extremely tight."

Dean Smith said Hawke's Bay and Marlborough were earlier, given their geographic location.

"The yields were impressive in both Hawke's Bay and Marlborough and the maturity also was fantastic.

"So, it was an earlier season with very good fruit quality and that's really continued through the balance of the season."

Smith said domestic consumers also enjoyed really good summer fruit through the season.

Just how well domestic consumers view the sector is the subject of a market survey which has just begun, with the results expected to be reported to the Summerfruit NZ annual conference in late June.

"As an industry we're very concentrated on looking to deliver the best possible consumer eating experience. For us to understand that we need to understand what consumers think about us, how they perceive the quality experience and what aspect of quality they most appreciate."

Meanwhile, Smith says Hawke's Bay growers' recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle remains "variable" two years on.

The cyclone didn't "dish out the misery evenly" with some growers disproportionately impacted, he said.

"Some growers are still very much in the recovery phase in terms of sourcing trees to replant or replace orchards that were demolished.

"There's still a long tail in terms of its impact in relation to tree health. Obviously the root stocks that we grow summer fruit on don't like getting wet feet and sometimes the effect of that isn't immensely apparent.

"Having said that, there's also growers that have had a pretty good season this year, getting back to what we would consider normal."