After one of the strongest starts to the 2024 season, Zespri is now in the midst of the summer fruit season, which traditionally sees more competition.
Around 75 percent of this season’s largest-ever crop of more than 190 million trays of kiwifruit from New Zealand have now been shipped to Zespri’s customers worldwide.
CEO Jason Te Brake said that after a positive start to the season, Zespri’s market teams have been focused on driving sales and preserving value for growers through the competitive summer fruit season.
“There has been a significant effort from the industry to deliver a fantastic crop of high-quality fruit, which allowed us to capitalise on early season sales opportunities. We’re now in a traditionally more challenging period on the back of the arrival of summer fruit, which is something we see every year,” said Te Brake.
“This is a period where we typically experience strong competition from peaches, berries, melons and grapes, which are more available in volume and at lower prices than expected.”
Strong competition has seen sales rates in most of Zespri’s major markets ease back from the record highs they had seen in the early parts of the season. Feedback from customers has also been clear that they have huge confidence in the fruit quality this season and want more of it.
In addition to domestic summer fruit, there has been more competition in the kiwifruit category, including an increase in the volume of Chilean green kiwifruit in the US market.
Te Brake added that Zespri’s teams have been well prepared with season planning focused on getting the season off to a strong start before hitting the summer fruit period.
With summer fruit experiencing harsh growing conditions this season, it’s likely to be off shelves earlier, with competition expected to subside in the next month.
“This season’s fruit quality has us well placed to close out the season firmly in the remaining months as this summer fruit exits the market, capitalising on clearer space to support returns to our growers.”
Zespri and its partners remain focused on delivering a record crop, with teams in the market executing outstanding campaigns to drive sales rates and deliver a successful season.
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