New Zealand has completed its kiwifruit export programme for the season, with the final shipment departing the Port of Tauranga for China on 3 December, rounding off what Zespri has described as a 'successful season'.
Zespri's supply chain general manager Sally Gardiner said that the industry had exported 99.8m trays of Zespri kiwifruit (around 3.3bn single pieces of kiwifruit) using 59 charter vessels and 5,616 containers this season.
According to a December forecast, grower returns are expected to increase by NZ$46.8m to a total NZ$825.8m compared with the previous season. 'This is a strong result in a very challenging economic environment,' said Ms Gardiner.
'Zespri growers have delivered fruit to meet the premium quality requirements of our international customers, and our post-harvest partners have reacted flexibly in an ever-changing market environment to ensure that fruit is delivered on time, in full and to specification, (DIFOTIS)' she added. 'In fact, this year is the first time ever that our suppliers have exceeded targets set for delivery, achieving DIFOTIS targets of 90 per cent or better.'
Zespri shipping manager Mike Knowles commented that this year had seen a unified effort by the industry. 'This year we started the shipping season earlier than ever before with a week 12 (22 March) shipment of Zespri Gold kiwifruit to Japan,' he said. 'We then managed to secure our largest ever below-deck shipment of Zespri kiwifruit aboard the Sunbelt Spirit carcarrier in April and loading records were broken at the Port of Tauranga in July.
'It's a credit to the whole industry that it has been able to supply such a high volume of export-quality fruit again this season,' Mr Knowles noted.
Ms Gardiner said that all of New Zealand's Zespri kiwifruit had been shipped and 97 per cent has been sold across all varieties and markets. As the New Zealand selling season draws to a close, Zespri has also recently commenced its Northern Hemisphere selling programme that will run through until March 2010.
'Zespri is now focused on selling high-quality Zespri Gold and Green kiwifruit grown in the Northern Hemisphere, which further strengthens the Zespri brand and helps secure retail shelf-space for 12 months of the year with key customers in Europe, Japan and East Asia,' said Simon Limmer, Zespri's general manager global supply.
In Europe this season, around 2.2m trays of Zespri Gold kiwifruit are expected from Italy for allocation in Europe and an additional 1.2m trays to Asia, up 2 per cent on the previous year's production volume.
Around 138,000 trays of Zespri Gold kiwifruit are expected to be procured from France this season, an increase of more than 100 per cent on last year's 67,000 trays. In addition, approximately 4.5m trays of Zespri Green kiwifruit will be available from Italy and France.
In Asia, 600,000 trays of Zespri Gold Class 1 kiwifruit are expected to be procured from Korea, and approximately 490,000 trays of Zespri Gold kiwifruit are expected from Japan.
The duration of the Northern Hemisphere supply season is from harvest and packing in late October to the end of November/early December, through to the end of the sales season in early 2010.
Meanwhile, the latest New Zealand industry forecast has pegged a NZ$46.8m (NZ$0.50 per tray) increase in fruit and service payments to growers compared with 2008/09, with minimal changes from the October forecast.
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