The trial is now in its third year, with the company's Corporate Affairs Manager in China, Ivan Kinsella, saying it will open the door for increased production volume, and a wider supply window.
"At this stage it's all imported," he said. "During the New Zealand off season we also have Zespri fruit coming in from Italy, which has been steady at around 1.5million trays a year. What we have been doing over the past three years, is a trial to see whether we can source premium quality kiwifruit in China that meets Zespri’s requirements. We know it grows here of course – China is the home of kiwifruit - but what we are doing is seeing if we can work with local partners to get local varieties up to Zespri standard which we can sell under our brand when there is no NZ fruit in the market. We are in third year of the trials and it's so far so good, there have been no insurmountable barriers to procuring Zespri quality kiwifruit."
The company is now doing final work surrounding the acceptability of Chinese-grown Zespri fruit to consumers. If that is successful Zespri expects to make decisions on suitable partners and move ahead with the plan by next year.
Zespri also held its new NZ season launch last month, and Mr Kinsella says the season has started well, with strong demand for its product and the fruit is coming through the wharves smoothly into the markets.
"China is now one of our top two markets - it's neck and neck with Japan – with China just ahead for global sales including Zespri’s northern hemisphere sourced fruit,” he said. "In the China market we are looking at around 25 million trays (3.5 kilo per tray), which will be up about 20 percent this season, which in New Zealand dollar terms was $500 million. That's against our global sales of around $2.4 billion in sales in 2017/18 - and nearly doubling that to $4.5 billion by 2025."
In volume terms the company's sales of New Zealand grown kiwifruit to China have more than doubled in the past five years, going from just under 10 million trays to this year’s estimate of 25 million. Mr Kinsella says demand for Zespri is being driven by the quality of the fruit and the time that it is imported to the market.
"What we are finding is New Zealand is counter seasonal and being in the southern hemisphere means that we are able to get Zespri kiwifruit into the market at a time where there isn't a lot of local kiwifruit there. But more important is the quality of the fruit; you've got a large growing urban middle class in China, and people are looking for fresh tasty premium produce and we fit into that pretty well."
China accounts for well over half the world's commercial kiwifruit production, with a number of local green, gold and red varieties, but Mr Kinsella added that Zespri's main competition comes from other fruit varieties.
"By the time our first fruit comes on the market in March, the only other southern hemisphere kiwifruit that's available is from Chile," he said. "Compared to New Zealand sales there’s not a lot of volume coming out of Chile at this time, particularly gold kiwifruit, and as we go through the season, the main competitor is local Chinese summer fruits which come online July-August time."
For more information:
Zespri
Phone: +64 7 572 7600
contactzespri@zespri.com
www.zespri.com