New Zealand kiwifruit marketer provides early season forecast with returns expected at similar levels to 2025
Zespri has released its first guidance to growers for the 2026/27 season, providing an early view of expected returns as the new season gets underway.
The kiwifruit marketer releases indicative guidance in March when early season fruit is arriving in market, with forecast returns at similar levels to the 2025 season.
CEO Jason Te Brake said that while the geopolitical environment remains “dynamic”, the 2026/27 season has started well with the industry making good progress with harvest, supporting a fast start with another large crop of around 220mn trays to sell.
“Our RubyRed harvest is close to finish, with almost all of this season’s five million trays now packed,” he explained.
”With RubyRed volumes up from around 3mn trays last year, our sales programmes have extended to include Australia, Vietnam and Canada for the first time. The SunGold harvest is also now underway.
“Despite heightened geopolitical uncertainty from the ongoing tension in the Middle East, our shipping programme is tracking well, with fruit moving steadily into market, with fruit to Europe shipped via the Panama Canal,” Te Brake continued.
“We have a strong pipeline of vessels arriving in New Zealand over the coming weeks and continue to work with our longstanding shipping partners on monitoring the expected impact of freight costs.
“Our initial guidance reflects positive demand for our fruit and the removal of US tariffs, while factoring in assumptions about the cost of bunker fuel and freight based on the latest information available as well as the estimated impact from the conflict in the Middle East, allowing for the potential of wider supply chain disruption,” he noted.
Zespri is also anticipating that it will see continued movement in its foreign exchange positions this season due to the changing environment, with its initial guidance reflecting positive movements with the Euro and Chinese Yuan, offset by downwards movement in its position with the US Dollar, Japanese Yen and Korean Won.
Te Brake pointed out that the March guidance is a preliminary forecast, with forecasts updated through the year when there is a firmer view of fruit and market performance, as well as on the scale and duration of the conflict in the Middle East.
