New Zealand’s apple crops have been large enough and abundant enough to counter any impact from serious weather events, at least according to Hastings grower Apollo Apples. “There were certainly a few weather events, but people have had very big crops that have more than made up for it,” said Neil Prosser. There was a certain amount of inconvenience due to weather this season, according to him, but nothing that growers couldn’t cope with.
“Our window’s about 80,000 bins in total, and there were more Jazz variety hit than most, but we ended up selling 15% more than we had budgeted, and it’s packing quite well.” Gary Jones, of Pipfruit New Zealand, agrees that the season has been pleasantly surprising. “Crop estimates were way down, but the fruit has had such great colour that the recovery has been much higher than expected. Size is also up across most varieties,” he said.
There are a few reasons for a drop off in European imports, according to Mr Jones, who says that there will always be close personal and historical ties between New Zealand and Europe, but Pipfruit is looking towards Asia for expansion and growth. High demand in Asia, and a more favourable USD-NZD exchange rate are among them. “We’re restructuring our entire offer, and while we’re looking to maintain our European market the indicators for growth just aren’t there. The economy is very very depressed and there are some real structural issues. All the macro economic drivers are towards Asia at the moment.”
He also cited the Russian ban on Polish imports from August 2014 creating an oversupply situation in Poland, adding that “People are actually extremely cautious.”
The apple season is expected to continue, and remain ‘fairly strong’ for another three weeks, with some later varieties that might dribble in to market after that, according to Apollo apples’ Mr Prosser. Mr Jones also indicated that the yields have only just been keeping up with demand from Asia.
The New Zealand export season for Enzafruit New Zealand International started around two weeks later than last year, and volumes would be around 300,000 tonnes in total, due to impact from hail storms in November and a weaker exchange rate, according to Tony Frissone of Enzafruit.