Asia
"All in all Asia has been pretty good despite a few sticky points. For example the Chinese market slowed down towards the end of the season, but some of our key markets such as Vietnam and Thailand have performed very consistently and we even increased our volumes to Thailand year on year," explains Darren. "We have also had good programs into the Middle East with our flagship variety Jazz performing well supported by by other key varieties such as Royal Gala and Envy.
According to Darren the slow down in China mainly affected the commodity varieties such as Gala and Pacific Queen, but T&G's propriety varieties, Jazz and Envy, did well with similar volumes to last year.
Europe
Europe showed another strong performance with good sales and prices at the beginning of the season. "Our retail customers switched straight into New Zealand fruit despite there being a lot of European fruit still available. We believe European retailers recognise the quality and eating experience of new season NZ fruit and it was very encouraging for us that retailers switched over as the fruit became available. We had consistent eating quality and good pressures with Gala, Cox and Braeburn. Jazz has performed exceptionally well in Europe and the result has been very pleasing. We are managing the sales to close out the NZ season but expect there will be a small gap before the European Jazz come on the market.
US
The US has been another solid and consistent market for T&G apples. "Volumes from the Washington crop stabilised after a large crop the previous year which helped stabilise the market," said Darren. "There has been more order in terms of pricing and fruit has flowed through the market better. Our varieties and our programs have done extremely well. Our New Zealand fruit goes into the market later in the US as we target a very specific window. We are about half way through our sales with movement, pricing and demand very stable. At the moment but we are very comfortable about how it is going.
T&G will again be at Asia Fruit Logistca in Hong Kong, Hall 3c O-18. The focus will be the continued evolution of T&G to be more customer centric by getting closer to end users and customers We have our collaboration with Zespri in Thailand which is working well and believe the philosophy behind the concept (having staff supporting customers by being based in market) will be expanded in the near future. It is our goal to create value through supporting our brands, products and customers. We believe this strategy will drive growth across all T&G product categories including Apples & Pears.
For more information:
Darren Drury
T&G Global Limited
Tel: +64 9 573 4734
Email: Darren.drury@tandg.global
www.tandg.global