Zespri chief executive Lain Jager is confident New Zealand kiwifruit will continue to command a premium price in China, despite a drop in export volumes to the Asian nation this season, according to a report from Radio New Zealand.
Zespri is expecting to send 7.5m trays of green and gold kiwifruit to mainland China this year, 25 per cent less than the 10m trays it shipped last season.
“New Zealand kiwifruit is still selling for about 10 times as much as domestic fruit is selling for,” Jager told Radio New Zealand.
Jager pointed to a reduced New Zealand production volume, created by the impacts of the Psa vine-killing disease, as the main reason behind the falling export volume.
He said global allocations would continue to be readjusted during an ongoing transition phase, which has seen growers shift their production bases to more Psa-tollerant varieties.
“The original Zespri Gold variety, Hort16a, has proven to be very susceptible to Psa, which has meant the industry has embarked on a Psa recovery pathway, moving its gold production base from Hort16a to Zespri’s newly licensed variety Gold3,” Jager explained to Asiafruit earlier this year.
“This season around 1,800ha of Hort16a has been grafter to Gold3, which means these orchards will not produce a crop this season.
“In general our approach with gold has been to allocate the shortage across markets in a balanced way reflecting historical volumes.”
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