Zespri expects to generate an extra half a million dollars in sales revenue through added licensing of its SunGold kiwifruit variety over coming seasons.
The single desk marketer has announced another 400ha of SunGold licensing will be released in 2017. This follows the release of 400ha of SunGold in March this year, at which time Zespri signalled – dependant on the product’s performance and global demand – 400ha of the variety would also be offered each year in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
“If 400ha of licence are released each year out to 2020, this will generate an additional NZ$500m in sales revenue to New Zealand at the current gold return,” Zespri chairman Peter McBride explained.
McBride said the decision reflected the strong confidence in the gold variety, with SunGold sales expected to hit nearly NZ$900m this season.
“We’ve sold around 46m trays of New Zealand SunGold this season, up 68 per cent on last season,” McBride noted. “By continuing to work with growers to produce the high taste fruit the market demands, we’re confident that we can continue grow the category and more than double our total sales to NZ$4.5bn by 2025.
“We’re continuing to invest strongly in marketing to introduce new consumers to this great product and the Zespri brand, developing new markets in places like India, the US and the Middle East, as well as using SunGold to grow sales in longstanding traditional markets like Europe and Japan.
McBride said Zespri would continue to take a conservative approach with the licence release, saying the process continues to be dependent on how SunGold performs in the seasons ahead.
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