Zespri boxes

Zespri has announced a 10 per cent rise in sales this season, which has boosted the single-desk kiwifruit marketer’s predicted annual profit by NZ$6.3m, reports the Bay of Plenty Times.

Gold and gold organic kiwifruit are already sold out, and green kiwifruit are not far off either, according to Zespri acting chief executive Lain Jager.

“This time last year, we still had gold and gold organic to sell in Europe and East Asia but this year we're now 100 per cent sold in all markets,” he said.

“On a year-to-date basis for green, we have sold 84 per cent of the crop versus 82 per cent last year. Our Europe shipping schedule is now complete and two final vessels are scheduled to depart for Japan over the next few weeks.”

Mr Jager said as growers pack their last trays a more accurate total season estimate of 75.7m trays has replaced the August prediction of 76.4m.

Production costs were up for the year, but so were returns to growers. Fruit and service payments were predicted to be up 10 per cent per tray, or 19 per cent in total.

The industry has recently received some relief from falling oil prices and benefited from a drop in the value of the New Zealand dollar.