NEW ZEALAND - It’s a big year for kiwifruit! As Zespri™ has reported, this upcoming season has the potential for strong category growth as the company expects to ship roughly 193 million trays to markets worldwide.

“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,” shared Chief Executive Officer Dan Mathieson. “While it’s still early, the crop is looking excellent and there’s a lot of excitement and optimism in the industry. That excitement is shared by our customers who are keenly anticipating having a lot more kiwifruit to meet the strong demand we’re seeing across our markets.”

Zespri’s latest supply estimate reflects the positive growing conditions seen across New Zealand in recent months, a recent press release explained. 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 Mathieson, the kiwifruit provider’s key focus 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.

“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,” Mathieson continued.

Another key consideration in the planning process was managing the increased volume of fruit throughout the supply chain and delivering consistently good quality fruit. The Kiwi Brothers will play a central role in this season’s marketing activities to help move fruit quickly.

“Our marketing teams have been working really hard on developing a number of great campaigns based around our award-winning Kiwi Brothers to ensure we’re able to keep our sales rates up throughout the year,” Mathieson added. “After a tough couple of years, there’s a lot of excitement about the year ahead and we’re well prepared as we get the season started through harvest over the coming weeks.”

To ensure consistency in supply, Zespri has been closely monitoring the disruption to international shipping though the company was not affected by the disruption in the Red Sea, instead shipping via the Panama Canal.

For more industry updates and insights, keep clicking on ANUK.