Zespri says kiwifruit season off to a strong start

Overview of kiwifruit from New Zealand in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on August 9, 2024.

Kiwifruit marketer Zespri said its 2024 season is off to a strong start with about 75% of its crop — one of the largest at more than 190 million trays — shipped from New Zealand to Zespri customers around the world.

The company said its focus is on driving sales and preserving value for growers during the competitive summer fruit season.

“There has been significant effort from the industry to deliver a fantastic crop of high-quality fruit, which allowed us to capitalize on early season sales opportunities,” Zespri CEO Jason Te Brake said in a news release. “We’re now in a period that is traditionally more challenging on the back of the arrival of summer fruit, which is something we see every year.”

Te Brake said kiwifruit faces strong competition from peaches, berries, melons and grapes, which are more available in volume and lower prices.

“While strong competition has seen sales rates in most of our major markets ease back from the record highs we’ve seen in the early parts of the season, feedback from our customers has been clear that they have huge confidence in the quality of our fruit this season, and they want more of it,” he said.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Zespri also has experienced an increase in competition in kiwifruit from Chilean green kiwifruit in the U.S. market, Te Brake said, but the Zespri sales team focused on strong sales leading to better position the company leading into the summer fruit season.

“With summer fruit experiencing tough growing conditions this season, it’s likely to be off shelves earlier with competition expected to subside in the next month and we’re already seeing signs of this starting to ease in some of our key markets,” he said. “This season’s fruit quality has us well placed to close out the season strongly in the remaining months as this summer fruit exits the market, capitalizing on clearer space in the market to support returns to our grower.”

Te Brake said Zespri remains focused on delivering a record crop and executing strong campaigns to drive sales.

Brought to market by Honeybear Brands and grown exclusively in Minnesota, First Kiss will begin shipping nationwide in mid-August.

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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