A late start to the season is already putting pressure on New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri. A later than usual summer flush of warm temperatures has meant a delay to the cool autumn conditions necessary for New Zealand's kiwifruit crop to mature on the vines. And with a record crop expected, the industry is gearing up to cope with a rush of fruit over the next few weeks.

Zespri chief executive Tim Goodacre said: "While the start of the season has been a little later than we would have liked, we are up and running now and it looks like we've got good quality fruit. We're comfortable that we'll get the fruit into market on time." Last season New Zealand turned out an 80million tray crop bettering forecasts for 75m.

A strong NZ dollar and freight-rate hikes will make things even tougher. Analysts estimate that forex costs will slice NZ$52 million off profits before the season begins and freight costs will account for another NZ$5m.

Zespri will be hoping the strength of its brand and the good quality crop it has this year will help it claw back some of the monetary disadvantages.

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