Supplies of New Zealand kiwifruit could run low towards the end of the traditional marketing window this year, Eurofruit understands, following the announcement by export marketer Zespri that this year's crop is a 'vintage' one in terms of the fruit's taste and sweetness.
With volumes likely to be lower this year, mainly as a result of a severe reduction in yellow-fleshed kiwifruit caused by the ongoing Psa outbreak, sources indicated that record levels of so-called dry matter – the mixture of starch and sugars that dictate sweetness – have encouraged strong demand and repeat purchasing in export markets, raising the prospect of a potential shortage late in the season.
Heralding this year's New Zealand kiwifruit crop as 'the best-tasting ever', Zespri's marketing general manager Carol Ward revealed that, with harvesting almost complete, on-orchard sampling and consumer feedback had both been extremely positive.
'We're seeing the highest-ever levels of dry matter for all categories of Zespri kiwifruit, which means a vintage year for fantastic-tasting fruit,' Ward commented. 'Dry matter is up substantially in all our varieties, so the fruit is tasting great. These record levels of dry matter are consistent across the industry, which means the overwhelming majority of Zespri kiwifruit fall into the highest taste category.'
According to Ward, marketing teams in many of Zespri's export markets have reported strong repeat purchasing among consumers. 'Research has confirmed that the higher levels of dry matter convert to sugars in the fruit and this is proven to increase both consumers’ enjoyment of the fruit and their intention to purchase again,' she explained. 'Our marketing teams have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction from customers and consumers to the fantastic taste across all varieties of Zespri Kiwifruit this season, which has helped kick off a really strong start to the 2013 selling season around the world.'
The apparent excellence of this year's NZ kiwifruit follows record levels of sunshine in New Zealand last summer. The Bay of Plenty region, where most of the crop is grown, recorded its highest sunlight levels during January, February and March since modern monitoring systems were introduced in 1992.
This sunny period coincided with what were the lowest ever rainfall measurements, which resulted in slightly smaller fruit.
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