Zespri™, the world’s biggest kiwifruit marketer, is estimating that its global volumes of Zespri™ Green will be up 10 million trays on last season, to almost 60m trays. Zespri™ Gold kiwifruit is up almost 5m trays to 13.5m trays and Zespri™ Organic are slightly ahead of 2003 figures, at around 2.5m trays.
According to Jean Louis Wamimont, Zespri’s™ marketing manager, the 2004 will be a momentous one for many reasons. “It will be a record season in terms of volumes, fruit sizes and superior and consistent great taste,” he says. “This summer season will also be the first time in 100 years that New Zealand kiwifruit will have such a strong national advertising and marketing support, to further build up our business and collaboration with all trade partners.”
Kiwifruit co-operative Satara chairman Andrew Fenton, who has 33 years industry experience, labelled the crop as the best he has had, saying that the market was buoyant.
It has been reported that there was a potential labour shortage this year but Fenton remains unconcerned. “Labour shortages have been predicted every year for a decade and Satara is yet to experience problems,” he says.
New Zealand is celebrating its 100th year of kiwifruit production and volumes have reached an all-time high. At the beginning of June, Seeka celebrated becoming the first kiwifruit company to have produced 10m trays in a season. Seeka, which produces around 15 per cent of the industry’s total kiwifruit and employs 1,200 people, is predicting it will have produced 11m trays by the end of the 2004 season.
Satara soon followed and topped the 10m tray mark in the middle of June. The organisation’s newly appointed chief executive officer Brian Bilas says the company harvested 11.3m trays - or 400m individual fruit - in 2004 surpassing the record total set in the previous season by 1.9m trays.
Growing conditions have posed few problems this season. “The 2003-04 season has been favourable for good tasting and a slightly larger than average-sized kiwifruit,” says Wamimont. “A cold 2003 winter followed by a relatively frost-free period during blossom got the season off to a good start. There has been a higher than average rainfall and normal sunshine hours, production has been stable.”
One area of impact has been the issue of currency. Wamimont explains: “The strong Euro and Sterling exchange rates have been attracting increased volumes of Chilean fruit away from the US dollar based markets.”
Zespri™ is continuing its efforts to work on new varieties. The company recently confirmed an extended agreement with Hort Research in New Zealand. “We need continually to innovate to stay ahead of the competition,” says Wamimont. “We don’t have a launch date for the next Zespri™ Gold, but we do have a number of very exciting new varieties in different stages of development. Zespri™ and Hort Research have an integrated structure that can bring a new variety to market in a coordinated and supported manner.”
New product research is just one area of Hort Research’s kiwifruit expertise. There are many initiatives being pursued by Hort Research and Zespri™. “We have seen improvements in eating quality of fruit and better presentation of product to the end consumer.
“The recent agreement with Hort Research is a recognition of changing research needs and the strengthening relationship between our two organisations. It ensures funding of research into the long-term for the interest of the industry. Most importantly, the agreement allows for sharing of information that can match the technological developments to market needs.”
Zespri™, as well as developing new varieties, is constantly working on its marketing efforts. “Our priority is to further develop Gold volumes and consumer awareness. When this is at an optimal level, we can think of launching new products. The Zespri™ Road Show programme focuses on allowing consumers to taste Zespri™ Green and Gold, receiving health product information and support our customers by selling our kiwifruit for them,” says Wamimont. “We intend to further support our customers with these events.”
Zespri™ has also invested strongly in advertising campaigns for both Zespri™ Green and Gold kiwifruit. Wamimont says: “These campaigns are rolled out on national television in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. Next to these we develop strong tailor-made promotional activities programmes for retailers and in-store consumer competitions.” Zespri has also rolled out a special nutritional programme for health professionals with a newsletter and attendances at conferences. Wamimont adds: “To date our campaigns have produced positive results, and the Gold and Green campaigns have been translated into favourable sales volumes.” l
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