New Zealand top fruit bosses have revised crop forecasts down for the 2005 season.

The new estimates, as the last harvested fruit begins to arrive in cold stores, suggest the total export crop will be short of the pre-season estimate of 336,000 tonnes.

Ian Palmer, Pipfruit NZ chairman, said the crop is expected to be around four per cent down at 324,000 tonnes, showing an 11 per cent fall on last year’s record export crop of 364,000 tonnes.

He said: “Both of our major export varieties, Royal Gala and Braeburn, are down. The Braeburn are excellent size and quality, and on target in Nelson, but the Hawke’s Bay crop is likely to fall 10 per cent short of estimates due to lower harvest volumes and packout rates.

“This is likely to bring the Braeburn crop back to 130,000 tonnes or even less from last year’s 150,000 tonnes,” Palmer said.

“On the other hand, the Royal Gala crop in Hawke’s Bay is close to estimate, while the Nelson Royal Gala crop is down six per cent. This will drop total Royal Gala exports from 128,000 tonnes to 125,000 tonnes.”

Fuji, Cox and Pacific Rose are also down on the January estimate, he said: “However, with all southern hemisphere producers having short crops this season, our expectation is that our major markets should be able to maintain firm prices and orderly movement of product for the balance of the selling season.”

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