Despite a challenging year, Zespri has broken the NZ$1 billion (£372m) sales barrier and have also announced an increased forecast.
The news, which the company described as good news for growers, came at the end of Zespri’s centenary celebrations.
Chairman Craig Greenlees said the new forecast looked much better than initially expected, but the board recognised it had been a tough year for growers.
The December forecast calculated an increase in total fruit and service payments of NZ$605.5 million, up NZ$18m, with significant per tray increases, with green kiwifruit up 35 cents and green organic up 40 cents.
However, there was a nine cent per tray decrease for gold due to the payout of rebates to wholesalers who had reached sales targets.
The positive news is a boost to an industry that, in October, was forecasting a NZ$10m decrease in total fruit and service payments to NZ$587.5m, due to large volumes, exchange rates and quality issues.
Greenlees said: “We spent more on in-market promotions late in the selling season this year. We held our price in the markets and at the same time increased out promotional spend and frequency. We are now seeing the result of this.”
Zespri will also pay a 25 cent per share interim dividend to shareholders in February 2005. A 50 cent per share dividend was paid to shareholders in October 2004 for the year ended March 31, 2004.
Greenlees added: “The interim dividend aims to smooth the flow of money in the industry through the year. We think this money will be useful to growers at this time.”
The sales boost, from NZ$911m last year to NZ$1bn this year was attributed to the record volumes of fruit, around 17m trays more than last year.
Zespri said it had also seen record prices in Asia as well as the second highest in-market prices in Europe.
