CEO Jason Te Brake reports strong sales in Europe and North America while addressing inventory challenges in China, as the company works on a new ten-year strategy to maintain growth through 2035
Zespri has released its first full forecast for the 2025/26 season, and has said that it is ”on track to deliver strong value back to growers”.
CEO Jason Te Brake said the forecast reflects a strong start to the season, with average per hectare returns expected to reach record levels for all categories other than SunGold and Organic Green.
“Our latest forecast is positive news for growers in a season with even more fruit to sell, with sales tracking well across our key markets including through the traditionally more competitive summer fruit season,” he outlined.
“It’s been encouraging to see Europe and North America performing strongly, with Europe a particular standout with more than two million trays sold each week for the past 13 weeks.
”To support this demand, additional fruit has been reallocated to these markets from Asia, where local economic conditions have been more challenging,” Te Brake continued.
“We’re also closely monitoring our progress in China where macroeconomic conditions and sales rates are softer and where we have around 20 per cent more inventory than preferred, with our team focused on selling fruit through quickly with less summer fruit in the market.”
At a per tray level, forecast returns have lifted from the June forecast for all categories other than SunGold and Sweet Green which remain within the indicative ranges provided in June.
Te Brake said that as Zespri moves through the summer fruit period and into the second half of the sales season, it remains focused on finishing the season strongly and maximising value returned to growers.
He also noted the industry’s results gave it a strong platform for the future, with work underway on resetting Zespri’s ten year plan to deliver ongoing value to growers.
“Our previous ten year plan saw us targeting NZ$4.5bn in sales by 2025,” Te Brake explained. ”With that fulfilled, our focus now shifts to how we remain future-fit in a global environment that will be more competitive and more complex than the environment we have been operating in previously.
“With this in mind, our 2035 ambition is focused on being the world’s healthiest fruit brand with our approach to be built around three key priorities – unleashing brand-led demand, transforming our global supply, and creating the product portfolio of the future and executing them well.
”We’re in the process of finalising that strategy and setting ourselves up for the future to continue to deliver leading value back to our growers,” he added.
