Zespri updates December forecast showing increased returns
Yields of the Green variety are expected to be down in the coming season, which will pose a challenge for Zespri in keeping open new developing markets, said Zespri chairman Peter McBride.
The latest green forecast for 2016 is $4.35 per tray, up 13 cents on the December forecast. Green organic was up 26 cents to $6.75 per tray, gold was up 22 cents to $8.52, and Green14 per tray return up 10 cents to $5.69, compared to the December forecast.
Following two consecutive years of record high green yields, the forecast for this year's harvest is expected to be greatly reduced and estimated to be around 70m trays compared to about 90m trays last year.
"Everyone's down generally, but some people are down a lot more than others," said Mr McBride.
Stuart Weston, general manager of Apata, said many companies had now "pressed the pause button" on future development until volumes begin to pick up again.
"We're disappointed volumes are down relative to where we were hoping they might be. But in the long term we know we made the right decision to add capacity."
source: nzherald.co.nz
