New Zealand apple and pear grower-marketer acquires 132ha from Cherri Global to provide year-round fruit volumes to its Asia markets
Kiwi Crunch, a leading name in New Zealand’s apple and pear industry, has expanded its portfolio to now include cherries, with the purchase of 132ha of cherry orchards late last year.
In October 2024, the grower-marketer purchased the Central Otago operation from one of New Zealand’s largest cherry growers, Cherri Global, which was later placed in liquidation.“When the cherry opportunity arose, it made sense to pursue it,” says Wade Glass, Kiwi Crunch executive director.
“We already have an established brand with loyal customers to leverage, and the counter seasonality of the two products means that now we can sell our brand all year round.”
Kiwi Crunch currently markets around 2mn cartons of apples and pears annually with around 1.2mn grown in Hawke’s Bay and the balance out of Central Otago. Glass says the cherry orchards proximity to Kiwi Crunch’s Central Otago operations was an added benefit.
“A large portion of our apple volume comes from our orchards in Central Otago, some of which are less than 15 minutes’ drive from the cherry orchards we acquired,” Glass explains.
“During the cherry harvest in January, we were able to utilise staff from our pipfruit operations to help get the cherries picked at peak ripeness, and vice versa during the apple harvest. It’s a unique advantage we now have.”
Kiwi Crunch expects to harvest over 800 tonnes of cherries in the 2025/26 season across its range of planted varieties including Kordia, Staccato, Regina, Sweetheart, Lapins and Rainier. Kiwi Crunch general manager for Asia sales, James Bennett, expects this to increase as the plantings mature.
“Our volumes will increase significantly year-on-year, [and] we will double the current volume within two years’ time,” he says.
Kiwi Crunch’s first cherry harvest fell only one month after it purchased the orchards in October, leading the company to utilise third party exporters for ease. However, Bennett says it will shift in-house ahead of the 2025/26 season.
“We will be handling the sales and logistics functions in-house for the coming cherry season,” he says. “We’re looking forward to establishing cherry sales programmes with our existing customers, and welcoming new ones on board too.
“This will be an advantage for us and our customers because it means we can be their one-stop-shop, fulfilling 100 per cent of their requirements for New Zealand cherries.”
The company is currently targeting markets in Taiwan, China and Vietnam but will look to develop secondary markets in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore as more volume comes online.
