High prices for French kiwis

"This year we have seen prices that we’ve never seen before", says Pascale Begoulle from the French company SIKIG. "The high pricing of the French kiwis had to do with the good quality of the fruit and with shortages, not only in France, but also in Italy. In France the kiwi production decreased by 20%." This was mainly caused by severe weather conditions such as frost, hail and wind. According to Pascale, "this season will be short. Especially with regard to the larger sizes. But with the current prices, it will be a very good season too." 

SIKIG only produces French kiwis. The production areas are located in the Adour and the Garonne valley. Pascale: "We produce the yellow kiwi variety SunGold on behalf of Zespri. Our growers bring the kiwis to the packing stations and Zespri markets them. We aren’t allowed to do this ourselves."

The green kiwis, on the contrary, are directly marketed by SIKIG. They are sold on the French market and on export markets. "We export our kiwis to Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and above all to Asia. Because of the smaller volumes we could not export as much as we usually do. Also, we did not actively search for new Asian markets and therefore did not expand our export area."

A remarkable development was that there was a serious shortage of the larger sizes. "On European export markets there exists a high demand for the larger ones and for this reason, European markets suffered most from the kiwi shortages."

At this moment SIKIG is investing in its organic production. "We have been active in the organic production for a few years and we want to improve on this field. We want our products to meet the requirements of Label rouge, IGP and Global GAP. Sustainability is high on our priority list. In fact, it’s one of the foundations of our business and the main reason for us to invest in organic production."