New Zealand’s warm winter, wet spring and dry summer has gifted the country’s kiwifruit growers with the perfect production platform heading into the 2015 season. While rainfall has again been below average levels across key growing regions, any potential impact on fruit sizing has been offset by the excellent growing conditions.
“The dry summer to date, and forecasts for this to continue, mean we’re looking at great-tasting fruit again this season, with high levels of dry matter and sugars,” explained Zespri’s newly appointed chief operating officer Simon Limmer. “While it’s too early to accurately forecast crop volumes yet, we the green crop looks similar to last year, while gold is up strongly again, on track to reach 50m trays by 2018.”
The gold harvest on New Zealand’s East Coast is expected to get underway around mid-March, with the bulk of the SunGold harvest to take place in April. Green production is likely to ramp-up over May and early June.
Japan will againbe the first destination on Zespri’s shipping schedule for 2015, with a consignment to be sent from the Port of Tauranga to the Asian nation in the last week of March.
“Zespri has implemented an industry-wide new supply planning process this season to better manage our inventory and supply and it will be great to get this underway and enjoy the benefits of the new system,” Limmer added.
