The 2012/13 Northern Hemisphere kiwifruit season could see France reclaiming lost market share across the EU since Italy – the main Northern Hemisphere producer – has announced a 30 per cent drop in production due to frost damage.
Added to that, key Southern Hemisphere supplier New Zealand is expected to have sold all its stock by the start of the European season.
“We will start the season with a clear market, and with lower Italian volumes,” Pascale Begoulle of France's second-largest kiwifruit exporter told Fruitnet. “With several weeks to go until we start harvesting, we daren’t say it’s going to be a great season. But we hope it will be.”
The French crop is forecast to be 5-10 per cent down this year compared to last. And a wet spring and dry summer is expected to give rise to greater volumes of medium-sized fruit, grower-shippers said.
French exporters expect strong demand across all their markets as a result of lower global volumes, and industry-sponsored promotions are earmarked for China, Taiwan, Belgium, Germany and France this season.
