increase font size
The kiwifruit season is promising strong growth with volumes back to pre-Psa levels this season, Zespri's chief executive Lain Jager says.
The NZ industry continues to recover from the Psa outbreak, transitioning from the previous gold variety Hort16A to Gold3 with 4,593 licensed hectares in NZ.
Jager says the industry is forecasting a harvest of around 30 million trays of gold kiwifruit – 25 million of this Gold3 – surpassing the previous high of 29 million trays sold in the 2011 season. The forecast gold volume this season has nearly doubled from around 18 million trays harvested last season.
"We are also looking forward to another great Green crop this year, with more than 70 million trays forecast from a total crop volume of around 108 million trays of premium Zespri Kiwifruit," says Jager
"While the impact of Psa is still being felt across the kiwifruit industry, this remarkable turnaround is testament to the cooperative and pragmatic nature of the industry and the strong support we have received from Government."
Jager says Zespri is well on track to selling more than 50 million trays of Gold3 in 2018.
"Our in-market teams are focused on building the demand for Gold3, introducing customers and consumers around the world to this great-tasting new Zespri product," he says.
Zespri continues to serve and develop new opportunities in the long-standing markets of Japan and Europe, as well as developing new markets in economies, including China, the Middle East, and Brazil. Zespri sales in China have grown at about 30% per annum over the last decade and are forecast to continue at around 20% per annum until 2020, with China expected to be Zespri's number one market a few years' time.
Jager says Gold3 had a great reception in Japan last season and demand is strong from Zespri's customers in Japan as the new season shipment is underway.
"We're also looking forward to great-tasting fruit once again this season, helped along by the hot, dry summer and adequate rainfall."
New Zealand's kiwifruit industry has welcomed Government co-investment in a new five-year programme designed to help growers produce higher yields of premium fruit, with less water, fewer nutrients and reduced environmental impact.
New Zealand exports to the European Union have surged by $3 billion in two years under the New Zealand-European Union Free Trade Agreement.
Zespri has unveiled Grown for Good, a refreshed global brand platform, in an effort to reinforce the company's commitment to nutrition and creating value across the kiwifruit industry.
Despite the ongoing bad news on the geopolitical front, New Zealand kiwifruit growers may be in for a good payout.
As we move into the late-summer and autumn period, much of the country’s fruit growing regions are entering operationally critical windows of the horticultural calendar. The question on grower’s minds is ‘what is the outlook for the March-April harvest?’
Money invested to protect native bush, wetlands and other special habitats on farms is paying huge dividends.
A central Canterbury business which turns malting barley into a key ingredient in beer making has celebrated its 100% New Zealand-grown status with a special event.
A farm shed solution to a long-standing safety problem has captured the public’s vote in the Fieldays Innovation Awards with AWS, with Waikato dairy farmer Warren Storey’s invention The PostMate, winning the 2026 Fieldays Innovation Awards People’s Choice Award, supported by KingSt. Advertising.
OPINION: The latest update from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) on the state of NZ's primary sector paints a positive picturee about its performance over the past 12 months.
The recently signed free trade agreement with India is an invitation to strengthen relationships between the New Zealand and Indian strong wool industries, says Wool Impact chief executive Andy Caughey.
Analysis of decades of research has revealed the implementation of good farming practices plays a critical role in reducing nutrient losses to improve freshwater outcomes.
OPINION: Central Hawke's Bay farmer Mark Warren recently told the Hawke's Bay Times it's time for a conversation about allowing…
OPINION: A nation that relies as heavily as NZ does on functional global shipping lanes will have to do its…
