Zespri looks for strong growth in kiwifruit supply

The upcoming New Zealand kiwifruit season has the potential to be a year of strong growth across all kiwifruit offerings, Zespri reports.

Zespri expects to ship around 193 million trays of New Zealand kiwifruit to markets around the world, according to a news release.

While still early in the season, Zespri said its latest supply estimate reflects the positive growing conditions seen across New Zealand in recent months. This season’s crop will be a significant increase on the 133 million New Zealand trays shipped last season and also up on the 175 million trays shipped in 2021, according to the release.

The key focus for Zespri this year is delivering consistently good-quality fruit to customers and consumers throughout the season to help maximize the value returned to growers and communities, Zespri CEO Dan Mathieson said in the release.

“It’s been a far more settled growing environment compared to the last couple of seasons when growers were facing a number of challenges, including the impact of COVID-19, the significant labor shortage in 2022 and the many climatic events that New Zealand experienced in 2023,” Mathieson said. “ While it’s still early, the crop is looking excellent and there’s a lot of excitement and optimism in the industry."

Managing the increased volume of fruit throughout the supply chain and delivering consistently good-quality fruit was a key consideration in the industry’s season planning process, Mathieson said.

“We’re trying to make sure we’re striking the right balance of having a good source of early-season fruit to capitalize on early-season sales opportunities and having fruit that stores well so that we can have a consistent flow of fruit through the season and minimize late-season quality issues,” he said.