"The nights stayed warm so we didn't have the usual cold weather, but dry matter content is good and we have big fruit. The only adverse effect is a late start," explained Simon Limmer COO at Zespri.
"We expect to have the biggest season ever with over 80 million trays of green and 40 million trays of gold. We are still rebuilding the gold volumes and the new production areas are starting to reach maturity. There is great optimism and confidence around the new gold variety, SunGold, and this will be by far the biggest season yet; given where we were a few years ago it is a great achievement."
Asian Markets
The Asian markets are pretty good across the board according to Simon. The two biggest markets for Zespri are Japan and China, which are performing well.
"China is our biggest volume market ahead of Japan this year for the first time. Japan has traditionally been our biggest market, but now China is really building as a value market for us, we see strong consumer demand for the Zespri brand which we put down to consistent good quality, good tasting fruit. People see it as something they can rely on."
"We have new distributors into China this year and we are looking at our import structures there, we are investing heavily the number of people we have on the ground in China. The market is building quickly, and we're building closer relationships with the customers, particularly retailers to connect better and give good quality effective service and make sure the fruit is coming in in good quality. It is quite an investment for us but it is paying dividends," said Simon.
Zespri now has has 5 offices in China, Shanghai (head office), Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Xian. The team is growing quickly with over 40 staff in China today.
The changing economic situation is being seen by some as the cause of less demand for import fruit, particularly citrus, in China at the moment, "It is very hard to say," explains Simon. "China is a massive economy and it is difficult to know what is going on at a fruit industry level. We're still seeing that there is a strong demand for high quality nutritious food products. We have a strong presence on the East Coast in the big cities, and we are also seeing strong growth in second tier cities further west too. Our strategy seems to be validated in the growth that we are seeing."
Zespri ships equal volumes of green and gold volumes to China; the market for green is the most competitive as the Hayward variety is the one which most grown across the world.
"Taiwan and Korea have also been good," according to Simon. "Korea in particular has been a good story, we have really focussed on that market and the FTA's are now coming into effect which makes us more competitive."
The marketing partnership with T&G in Thailand is still in its early stages, this is the first year and Simon said it is a good relationship. Although it is a bit early to make conclusions on how the season is going but they are making positive headway and the team is on-track for sales of 1 million trays this season.
Europe
Europe has also had a slow start due the late harvest. The European season lasted longer due a long Italian season. The New Zealand gold arrives before the green and has been selling well in Europe, and green sales are now accelerating as volumes begin to arrive and the Italian fruit finishes.
India
Last week Zespri announce that Harshaali Malhotra, a Bollywood child star would be the face of the brand in India, this is the first time Zespri have used such a marketing campaign.
"India is an interesting market and we are starting to see growth there," said Simon. "The infrastructure in India can be challenging and our product needs a robust cold chain, but we have seen growth there this year and are expecting exiting things from that market."
For more information:
Simon Limmer
Zespri
Email: simon.limmer@zespri.com
www.zespri.com