The first batch of early Gold kiwifruit has been picked and packed in New Zealand this week, putting the season about a week ahead of last year’s crop.
Picking began last weekend, according to Zespri CEO Lain Jager. “We managed to harvest reasonably good volumes of Gold kiwifruit on the weekend,” he told Fruitnet.
“That means we’ve been able to bring Asian shipping forward. It feels to us Zespri Gold is tracking about a week earlier that last year, and Green is a little earlier as well. We’re planning to get into the shipping seriously around 30 March.”
The season’s volumes so far look to be on par with the record-breaking 100m-tray crop in 2008, according to Mr Jager. Zespri’s Gold variety is expected to yield 22m trays; Green is forecast at 75-75m trays and organic production at around 3m trays.
“We’ve had a good growing season,” Mr Jager said. “The fruit is a good size; we’ve got an average of about count 33, which is good.”
The early start gives Zespri access to good early season prices, which Mr Jager says are quite attractive in early April.
His outlook on the market for New Zealand kiwifruit is positive. Zespri has been experiencing strong growth in markets throughout Europe, Asia and North America over the last few years, and while Mr Jager said it’s unreasonable to expect that growth to continue apace this year, it gives the industry a comfortable margin to absorb lower sales.
“Obviously we’re in the middle of global economic slowdown, but to us the fruit market looks OK,” he stated. “This year could be a little bit more challenging, but it’s a good time to be in the food industry.”
No comments yet