WELLINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Zespri kiwifruit's forecast per hectare returns are up from last season for all categories, reaching record levels for Green and Organic Green.
New Zealand's Zespri released its first full forecast for the 2024-2025 season on Wednesday.
The latest forecast reflects both the strong season start and the competition seen more recently in markets, including from summer fruit, said Zespri Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jason Te Brake.
"The industry put a lot of work into getting off to a really strong start to the season to meet early season demand and that's set us up well in a year where we have a lot more fruit to sell," Te Brake said.
With a total crop of more than 190 million trays to sell, Zespri was focused on finishing the second half of the season strongly, he said.
"This season's improved growing conditions have meant grower yields have increased," he added.
Increasing competition reinforced the importance of Zespri's global supply strategy, set up by growers more than 20 years ago, which involves Zespri working with offshore growers to have counter-seasonal supply in place to complement the New Zealand season, Te Brake said.
Zespri, owned by current and former kiwifruit growers, has a global team of 850 based in New Zealand and throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas, according to the company.
Working with 2,800 growers in New Zealand and 1,500 growers offshore, Zespri supplied 164.2 million trays of kiwifruit to consumers in more than 50 markets, and recorded global operating revenue of 4.21 billion NZ dollars (2.59 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023 and 2024, it said. ■
