Zespri says New Zealand kiwifruit volume down
New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri has reported that challenging weather events throughout the 2023 growing season have contributed to a lower-than-expected New Zealand crop.
The latest New Zealand crop estimate indicates that Zespri now expects to export around 136 million trays of green, SunGold and RubyRed kiwifruit to more than 50 countries this season, down from 171 million trays supplied in 2022, according to a news release. This season’s crop potential could be reduced further after April’s hail event in the Te Puke growing region, the release said.
“Like many others in the primary industries around the world, kiwifruit growers have faced a particularly tough time this growing season, including many weather-related challenges,” Zespri CEO Dan Mathieson said in the release. “As a result, we have a limited supply of kiwifruit for our customers this season, particularly green kiwifruit where we’re expecting one of the lowest volumes in the past 20 years, with around 42 million green trays available which is down from around 61 million trays in 2022.”
While lower volumes make it more challenging for customers to access Zespri kiwifruit, Mathieson said the industry will be focused on lifting fruit quality this season and prepare for increased volumes in 2024.
“There’s been a huge effort across the industry and our supply chain to do everything possible to lift quality this season, including making sure we had a really good quality harvest, and that’s been supported by the initiatives that have been established as part of the industry’s Quality Action Plan,” Mathieson said in the release.
“While it’s still early in the season, it’s been promising to hear the consistent feedback across our key markets that our initial shipments are showing much better quality outturns this season,” he continued. “We’ve already seen that in our Asian markets and now again over the weekend in Europe where our first shipment of fruit has been distributed to meet the strong demand we’re seeing from local consumers.”
With more than half this season’s fruit harvested, planning for next season was already underway to manage a much larger forecast crop in 2024, he said in the release.
“From a supply perspective, we’re expecting significantly more volume in 2024 as growers rebound from this season’s weather-related reduced yields and more of our licensed SunGold Kiwifruit hectares come into maturity,” Mathieson said in the release. “This growth is expected to continue in the years ahead, with our New Zealand supply alone forecast to reach almost 230 million trays in 2027-28. Our Northern Hemisphere supply locations are also forecast to more than double from this year’s 25 million trays by 2027-28.”
