New Zealand top-fruit industry representatives do not believe that market conditions for their fruit have improved sufficiently on last year’s disastrous season to justify growers’ predictions of a breakeven season in 2006.
According to the NZ ministry of agriculture and forestry’s pipfruit monitoring report published last week, growers in Hawkes Bay are optimistic that a export returns and profitability this season will mean they break even while Nelson growers are expecting a small loss.
The report forecasts further, though smaller losses in 2006.
The report author, Nick Dalgety, senior policy adviser at Maf, interviewed both growers and their representatives and found representatives were concerned about the impact of the still-high NZ dollar and rising freight costs as well as carry-over stock in key markets such as Europe.
But there are reasons for cautious optimism. “The national planted area has fallen 13 per cent since 2005,” said Dalgety, “reducing the volume of fruit available for export in 2006. “New plantings particularly in the Hawkes Bay and Nelson regions have to some extent offset these tree removals and the pip-fruit industry has initiated some changes on and offshore in response to the losses of recent years.”
The relative improvement in outlook for this season is due to the smaller crop and better co-ordination across exporters as well as more favourable exchange rate. The success of new measures such as planting new varieties and intensive planting systems on dwarf rootstock, vertically integrated structures through the supply chain and the assurance standard Pipfruit New Zealand Trustmark will be measured by whether they can return NZ growers to profitability, concluded the report.
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