Japanese trade adds to season’s strength for Zespri

That’s just one interesting aspect of this season, which is shaping up to be a good one, Courtney told Rural News.

“The Japan market is relatively empty of fruit because a lot of fruit is going into China because the Japanese yen is very weak at the moment. A lot of people are shifting their product into China to take advantage of the exchange rates there. 

“There is also quite a shortage of other fruit going into Japan as well so we have managed to push volumes into that market. 

“That is our biggest paying market so it helps grower returns because the returns are split across the markets we get our fruit into – the more fruit we get into Japan the higher the return will be.”

China’s economic slowdown has not had much effect so far. “We have done more in China this year than last year.”

Overall they are having a good season, particularly with Gold because it is a new variety; there’s been a big leap this year in volume and another big leap is forecast next year. 

“So getting it up and away and sold in such good order was very good for us.”

Zespri can now start putting numbers to its forecasts of per-tray returns (see sidebar) -- rather than giving only a price range -- as it is now well into the season. However it will change as the season progresses. Final figures don’t come until the end of the financial year but by January or February they will have a good view of what they will be. 

The forecast for Green is down to $4.87 per tray from $6.01 last year because of the volume, the highest ever yields.

“Last year they did just under 70m trays total from the industry. There was also large frost in Chile so their volumes were down 50%. The market was empty of kiwifruit last year and we had a very low Gold volume as well. This year they have 81 million trays out of New Zealand, quite a substantial increase, but also Chile has had a 60% increase in its volume from last year. 

“They have a lot more Gold going into the market this year as well.” 

But on a per hectare basis Green is virtually the same as last year, to $53,841 - $53,884/ha because of a 2000 tray yield increase. 

“We don’t have any more hectares [planted] but there’s a significant increase in yield,” Courtney says.

“With Gold the forecast ($7.76 per tray) is actually higher than we forecast in May. Gold is performing better than we expected which is fantastic news because the volumes will increase even more next year.

“With the Gold this year the plan was to build market acceptance and demand, leaving customers and consumers wanting more and that’s what we’ve done. It’s a good product that has been received enthusiastically by our markets around the world.” 

Around 31m trays of Gold will be produced this year vs 18m last year.