Zespri Forecasts Record Returns for 2025/26 Kiwifruit Season
According to Zespri's November forecast for the 2025/26 season, returns are likely to be up for all fruit groups compared to the last forecast in August.
Mathieson recently announced that he's taking up a new position as president of Driscoll's - a huge California-based company that produces a range of berries. In 2017, it controlled roughly one third of the $6 billion berry market in the USA.
Driscoll's is a fourth-generation family business set up in the late 1980s by the Reiter and Driscoll families. The company also has a subsidiary called the Fresh Berry Company based in Hawke's Bay which was set up in 2016.
Mathieson has been at Zespri for 21 years, almost seven of those as CEO. He will remain at Zespri to oversee the 2024 harvest and start of the sales season and until a new CEO is appointed.
Bond says Mathieson has led the industry through a strong growth period as well as the last two challenging years.
"He's always had growers' best interests in mind and has worked very hard for the industry and can take a lot of credit for the strong position it is in now as one of the best global fruit brands in the world."
