Imported kiwi supply is on the tighter side at the moment. "Supply is extremely challenging. Greece ended the season earlier than expected and Italy had a short crop," says Trucco CEO Nick Pacia.
He noted that this season Greece had unusually larger-sized fruit in its crop.
That said, Pacia says it's not planning to have a gap in supply given it has a few more weeks of arrivals of Greek and Italian kiwifruit. "We also expect the next season from Chile to be one week later than expected due to the maturity of the fruit. Shipping will begin next week or the week after with arrivals towards the mid-end of April."
"We are also very excited to start the New Zealand season with SunGold and green kiwifruit," says Pacia, adding that SunGold will start arriving around April 20 while green kiwifruit will arrive mid-May.
Developments in supplying countries
Pacia notes that it's been a few challenging years for kiwifruit with both the Northern and Southern hemispheres having shorter supply that has created a bit of a vacuum for kiwis. "This year should be balanced again though," he says, adding that Italy particularly is working through developments in increasing its acreage. "We will also see Greece become the larger supplier of green kiwifruit from the Northern Hemisphere," he says.
Not surprisingly, demand looks strong for kiwi. "We are continuing to supply key partners with fruit the best we can," he says, noting overall demand is outweighing supply right now.
As for pricing, it's extremely high at the moment. "It's getting close to record high pricing," says Pacia. "However I don't foresee the market changing anytime soon. We will need a few weeks of shipments into the marketplace for the market to level off and I don't foresee that happening until mid-May," he says.
For more information:
Yasmin Pacia
Trucco
Tel: +1 (914) 391-5990
ypacia@truccodirect.com
www.truccodirect.com