The past year brokea number of records for the New Zealand kiwi giant Zespri. Records were brokennot only in financial figures - the yield per hectare of the Green was also thehighest ever. The largest volume ever was also a market with the largestfinancial yields for the growers.
The volumes ofkiwis are once again reaching the level of before the Psa outbreak. A recordvolume was harvested for the green kiwis. More hectares of the SunGold cameinto production. The harvest of the green kiwis was much higher in New Zealand.Zespri market 117 million trays of New Zealand harvest. This is almost 22million trays more than in the previous year. 14 million trays were harvestedfrom other cultivation areas. In total the number of trays rose by 21 percentto 131 million. This growth in the number of trays of Green was an importantfactor for the growth in the financial figures. On average a hectare of Greenyielded 11,048 trays.
Organic kiwi and Gold
The area for theSunGold rose considerably from 1.814 hectares in 2014/2015, to 3,338 hectaresthis financial year. In trays this equates to an increase of 5,7700 trays in2014/15 to 8,234 trays last season. The mood at Zespri is positive. Another 400hectares of SunGold are being released in New Zealand for the coming year. Thearea of Gold shows a clear downward trend. This variety suffered most from thePsa and is being replaced by the SunGold. Whereas in financial year 2012/2013there was still 2,230 hectares of Gold on the New Zealand island group, the figure for last season was at 393 hectares.
Although the areaof the organic, green kiwis isn’t rising, but showing a small downward trend,the volume is rising. This year 7,254 trays per hectare was reached. In2012/2013 this was only 5,508 trays per hectare.
Italy SunGold champion
The market isshifting worldwide. The Chinese market shows exceptional results. Theopportunities in this market are large. When looking at volume, this countryrises to the top of the list for export markets for Zespri. In the coming yearsChina will also replace Japan as the largest market in value.
To meet the demandof the northern hemisphere and to be able to guarantee a year round supplythere, cultivation projects have been set up in four countries. The supply ofthe SunGold in particular has to be guaranteed from these countries. In 2020there are to be 17 million trays of this yellow kiwi marketed. Most of theproduction can be found in Italy. This increase matches the growth figures expectedfor the New Zealand cultivation, which means there should be a stable supply ofthis variety all year round. At the moment Italy is worth 2.2 million trays ofSunGold and 11.1 million trays of green kiwis. A year previously this was510,000 trays of SunGold and 10.9 million trays of Green.
South Korea and Japan
Most of the 400hectare area can be found in the province of Lazio. An additional 1,000hectares has already been planned, which will considerably increase theSunGold production in the coming years. The kiwis are shipped all over theworld. In 2014 the first SunGolds were shipped from Italy to China.Neighbouring France has 170 hectares of SunGold. In the coming years this is tomore than double to 400 to 450 hectares in 2018. The plants are still young andare therefore not yet in full productions. 40,000 trays of SunGold were filledin France this season.
Plantations of theZespri kiwis can be found in Japan and South Korea in the Far East. As of 2003the New Zealand brand can be found in Japan. The recent outbreak of Psa-V inthe country limits the yields. There is also a plan in Japan to replace theGold plantations with SunGold. In South Korea 110 hectares of Hort16A kiwis canbe found. This area is to be replaced by SunGold over the coming years. In theregion Jeju Island 16 hectares is being planted with SunGold. In 2014 Psa-V wasfound in this region. With the aid of the experiences in New Zealand the crisishas been handled, but the volumes were lower.
Thesedevelopments provided good figures with an increase in turnover of 21 percent.The turnover therefore rose to 1.9 billion dollars. The total number ofmarketed trays was also 21 percent higher at 131 million. There was 35.8million dollars’ worth of profit after tax.