New Zealand kiwifruit growers are predicting a strong season after growers in Gisborne began picking Zespri Gold this week.
The volume for the 2011 season is expected to be similar to last year’s, with around 100 million trays of kiwifruit being exported.
Zespri’s supply chain manager Sally Gardiner, said: “Growing conditions have been fantastic, with more rainfall and higher temperatures on average compared to last season and we are expecting a great crop as a result.
“With the start of the season there is always a real buzz in the industry as the hard work done through the growing season starts to deliver, as all those working in the industry prepare themselves for the very busy months ahead and the anticipation builds in our offshore markets for the arrival of new season fruit.”
Gardiner said with picking started, it is expected the first of this season’s Zespri kiwifruit will be shipped from New Zealand next week and will start to arrive in overseas markets in mid-April.
“We are confident that there will again be strong demand for Zespri’s premium kiwifruit in overseas markets despite ongoing global economic uncertainty and the still-to-be-determined impact on demand in our key market of Japan from the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami.”
Among the early season fruit to be picked are two of the new Zespri varieties - an early gold variety, and an earlier, sweeter green variety - released to growers in June last year for commercial use. A third variety, a potentially long-storing gold variety which has the potential to extend the Zespri Gold selling season, was also released to growers at the same time.
Zespri has confirmed it will make available at least 200 hectares of kiwifruit variety licences to kiwifruit growers in June this year, and potentially more subject to further supply chain and in-market consumer assessment in the next few months.
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