Kiwifruitz Konnection: It’s business as usual

Kia Ora and Hello,

As you know, COVID-19 means I can’t be there face-to-face with you, which I do miss. I hope you’re all staying safe and well. In New Zealand we are all being careful and Kiwifruitz is certainly open for business as usual.

Season and Production update

I would like to give you an industry situation update and also provide information about what fruit we currently have in production. New Zealand has had a very warm summer. We have had very good pollination and a very good growing season, which has led to an excellent kiwifruit crop both in terms of quality and volume.

Longer season means sweeter fruit

New Zealand’s warm, fine weather is continuing well into autumn, which is happening right now. This means we potentially have higher brix than last year, with more sugar in the fruit and a sweeter taste. (Note: You probably know that in New Zealand Autumn is April and May – our kiwifruit-ripening season). The other good news is, we have an excellent yield of seed per kiwifruit this year.

80 million trays of gold; 70 million trays of green

While there have been concerns around labour shortages, the harvest has started with both picking and packing underway. In fact, the industry is running ahead of last year. Zespri’s latest estimates show that they are on track to supply a huge 80 million trays of gold Kiwifruit this year … and more than 70 million trays of green Kiwifruit. That’s a very good increase from last years’ crop of 147 Million trays.

Shipments underway; prices stable

The industry’s first shipment of fresh fruit has already been dispatched and will reach Tokyo and Kobe in early April. Asia will absorb the majority share of the fresh export crop. Every year, we are excited when the season is underway. We have made some key improvements to our factory that will allow for better efficiencies. that means we are looking to keep our prices stable. This includes green and gold seed-out and seed-in puree, as well as green organic seed-out puree. We are also carrying a small amount of kiwifruit seed.

We have an on-going supply to all our customers

We are targeting a mid-to-late April start for special runs for our American and Australian customers, with the main start scheduled for May. The good news is, our coolstores are up-and-running and the first fruit is expected to be at site in early April to allow us to start conditioning it for processing. Not only that, we have firm orders already placed from all key markets and expect these to remain firm throughout the season. As importantly, logistically, all our external suppliers are working, and we have been able to secure freight lines to all our major markets, which is good news for all our customers like you.

My best,

Grant

P.S. Remember, despite these challenging times, the kiwifruit keeps growing, we keep processing, and we will still supply you with the world’s best kiwifruit puree and seeds. Please email me or call if you have any questions. In the meantime, stay safe, stay well. I’ll talk to you again soon. Thank you.