New Zealand top-fruit body Pipfruit NZ has revised the NZ apple crop down still further to just 15.3 million cases. This is only marginally larger than last year’s 14.9m case pack-out, and is down nine per cent on pre-season estimates.
“The key difference will be in dominant varieties Braeburn and Royal Gala,” said chief executive Peter Beaven. “For Braeburn, we had a pre-season estimate of 6.5 million cases - 39 per cent of the total crop - but it looks like Braeburn exports will be very similar to last year’s 5.7m cases.”
Growers are putting the reduced crop down to lower pack-out rates brought about by cosmetic damage from spring frosts as well as sunburn from the hot summer.
“For Royal Gala, our other major variety, exports have now finished and are currently 5.5m cases compared to the pre-season estimate of 6m cases, and last year’s total of 5.3m,” Beaven said.
Other major contributors to the export crop are Fuji, 1.2m cases, Cox, 420,000 cases, Jazz, 400,000 cases, and Pink Lady, 330,000 cases.
Most markets are performing well, Beaven reported. Sale prices in local currency have been maintained at good levels all season, in particular in Asia and the US. NZ apples continue to command a significant premium on other southern-hemisphere supply.
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