New Zealand top-fruit leader Turners & Growers expects to exceed last year’s annual profit figure in 2006.
T&G chairman Tony Gibbs told a shareholders meeting in Auckland he will be "very disappointed" if the company fails to beat the NZ$13.26 million profit reported for the year to December 2005.
The company's apple exporting business is back on track after a couple of difficult years, due to a significantly reduced national crop. T&G, which goes under the Enza brand, has handled around 40 per cent of New Zealand's apple crop this year.
But Gibbs admitted "with so much fruit yet to be sold it is too soon to project the future with certainty".
He did, however, predict a very bright future for the company’s licensed brand apple, Jazz, which has been able to command a premium over other varieties and increases in volume every year.
Figures at the meeting suggested that by the time worldwide production of Jazz reaches six million cartons in 2012, T&G could be making more than $21 million in net commission from sales.
T&G managing director Jeff Wesley described Jazz and the development of other new varieties as "the future of apple growing in New Zealand".
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