Kiwifruit crop volumes well down

Zespri has confirmed challenging weather events throughout the 2023 growing season have contributed to a lower-than-expected New Zealand kiwifruit crop this season. The latest New Zealand crop estimate indicates that Zespri now expects to export around 136 million trays of Green, SunGold and RubyRed Kiwifruit to more than 50 countries this season. This is down on last years decreased harvest of 171 million trays and a long way off 2021’s bumper season that reached 182 million trays.

The volume impact particularly on green kiwifruit is expected to be one of the lowest volumes in the past 20 years, with around 42 million green trays available which is down from around 61 million trays in 2022.  It is expected that over half of NZ’s green growers will not make a profit this year.

While volumes were down Zespri confirmed that quality was up.

Zespri said that there is currently an was an opportunity for the industry to focus on lifting fruit quality this season and prepare for increased volumes in 2024.From a supply perspective they were expecting significantly more volume in 2024 as growers rebound from this season’s weather-related reduced yields and more licenced SunGold Kiwifruit hectares come into maturity. Growth is expected to continue in the years ahead, with our New Zealand supply alone forecast to reach almost 230 million trays in 2027/28. Northern Hemisphere supply locations are also forecast to more than double from this year’s 25 million trays by 2027/28.

The industry is working hard to build greater resilience into supply chains to overcome the adverse weather events many have faced, deliver larger volumes of consistently high-quality kiwifruit, and return more value to growers and communities.