Zespri revises losses forecast

Although the overall market forecast is unchanged from figures released at the beginning of last month, Zespri said on Monday that the forecast for onshore green kiwifruit loss has been increased to 10 per cent and the forecast for Gold has dropped from 13 per cent to 9.4 per cent. But the estimates vary widely from grower to grower and are in the range of 1.9-21.5 per cent onshore for Gold and 1.1-12.7 per cent for green fruit.

“With these variations some grower orchard gate returns will suffer a serious impact,” sad ceo Tim Goodacre. “Every one per cent equates to approximately a NZ$0.07 change in orchard gate return per tray at current forecast levels.”

Meanwhile, sales of green fruit are running 1.4 million trays behind sales at this point in the season a year ago while Gold and organic fruit are 720,000 and 80,000 trays ahead respectively.

Late season competition is tough, though reports Zespri. The Chilean season is lasting longer than first thought and Italy is already forecasting an early start.

Meanwhile, Zespri has launched its new corporate strategy to staff at meetings around the globe. It has set out 10 company objectives around three major themes: more money in grower-shareholder pockets, more power in the market and better performance.

“Being open with growers about how you are performing, even in tought years, is what should set this industry apart from other agribusinesses that have failed,” said chairman Craig Greenlees.