A New Zealand top-fruit growers’ leader has told of his worries surrounding pricing on late-season varieties.
Ian Palmer, chair of industry body Pipfruit NZ said: “I am deeply concerned to hear some of the prices for late varieties filter back. It is very clear we will see some wide-ranging results, often determined as to whether there was foreign-exchange cover in place…It is clear there will also be quite some difference in returns between the main regions.”
Hawkes Bay, which has a greater proportion of varieties preferred by the Asian markets is expected to fare better than the Nelson area which has a stronger European mix.
Palmer is also looking ahead to next season and the likely fortunes of NZ growers given a substantial northern hemisphere crop. He said: “I believe that global consumers have shifted their purchasing habits and they are unlikely to revert to pre-credit-crunch behaviours. Consumers are likely to be a lot more conscious of their limited spending power and will certainly be more discretionary in their purchases…Combined with another full northern-hemisphere crop, next season could be still be very challenging. The biggest variable in it all is of course the exchange rate.”
Meanwhile, exporter Enza told Radio New Zealand that some 20 per cent of early Jazz shipments had to be repacked on arrival at destination markets because of quality problems with blotch and bitter pit that only show up five to six weeks after harvesting.
No comments yet