Sources claim that Zespri's kiwifruit harvest from its Northern Hemisphere growers is set to exceed previous crops. Nick Kirton says the company’s Northern Hemisphere sales program has just commenced with it expecting to sell around 29 million trays. This amounts to just over 100,000 tons of kiwifruit from orchards throughout France, Italy, Greece, Korea and Japan. This compares with 24 million trays or 88,000 tons sold last season.
For more than 20 years, Zespri has built up a group of some 1500 growers and suppliers in the northern hemisphere to complement the fruit grown in NZ. This enables Zespri to have kiwifruit on supermarket shelves for 12 months of the year.
According to Kirton, this season’s Green sales volumes are expected to remain steady compared with last year, while SunGold Kiwifruit sales are projected to increase by 25%, reflecting improved growing conditions, increased yields and new production. Zespri expects its Northern Hemisphere supply programme will continue to grow and to double in volume by 2030.
Source: ruralnewsgroup.co.nz