New Zealand’s kiwifruit crop will fall into the “comfortable” 100m-tray range again this year, according to marketer Zespri, with an increase in Gold volume and large sizing.
With the season due to start in mid-March, the Zespri Green crop is forecast at around 72m trays, which CEO Lain Jager described as a comfortable volume for Zespri globally.
“The Gold crop is looking great with volume up to around 25m trays this year, which should mean that the shortages of last year are significantly alleviated in most markets,” he told Fruitnet.com.
While Brix levels won’t be as high as last year they are expected to be good, and nice weather conditions have translated to a large size profile.
Market conditions in North America and Europe look similar to last year, while Mr Jager expected continuing growth in Asia. Zespri will keep its 2010 marketing campaigns in Japan, Korea and China rolling into 2011, focusing on nutrition, energy, health and vitality.
Zespri’s three new kiwifruit varieties announced last year won’t make a widespread splash on the scene this year, but the small volumes available will be used for commercial market trials. This year’s trials are expected to finalise the market position and branding for the new varieties.
Pre-commercial grower trials are continuing for Zespri’s red-fleshed varieties. “Depending on how the reds perform in these trials, the earliest possible commercialisation time would be 2012,” said Mr Jager.
