Enrique Guio del Moral, the marketing director of Zespri Ibérica, does not rule out that the company may expand its portfolio with kiwis of Spanish or Portuguese origin, as the New Zealand company is continuously studying and searching for new cultivation plots.
Del Moral spoke to Efeagro at the Fruit Attraction fair and acknowledged that "the crop tests carried out so far in Spain and Portugal, unfortunately, have not met the rigorous quality standards of the company."
"However, we hope that we'll soon be able to also expand plantations in our market," he added.
To date, the kiwis that Zespri has marketed in the Iberian Peninsula have originated from New Zealand, Italy, Greece, or France, depending on the season.
Zespri is an international reference in the marketing of kiwi. The brand, which is still owned by farmers, controls 30% of the world's kiwi.
In 2021, the group's kiwi business sales amounted to NZ $4.03 billion (about €2.335 billion). Zespri sells its kiwi in 60 countries.
Guio del Moral said that last year they sold 222,000 tons of Zespri kiwi in the European region, a figure that they expect to repeat in 2022.
In the Spanish market, Zespri has reached a volume share of 57.6%, according to the marketing director of the group's Iberian subsidiary.
Source: agrodiario.com