Top prices paid for kiwifruit
Zespri is on track to post record kiwifruit sales to China of $505 million to the end of the financial year in June and expects turnover to double in four years’ time.
With prices as high as $3.30 for one ‘‘jumbo’’ sized kiwifruit – at 150 grams not the size that Kiwis get to buy in their stores – China is viewed as a high value, premium market that is growing fast on the back of a rapidly rising middle class.
The 2018-19 season kicked off with the first shipment of the fruit branded with the Chinese name for Zespri of ‘‘Jiapei’’ arriving from Tauranga earlier this month. These were the vanguard of a likely 25 per cent increase on last year, to a projected 25 million plus trays grown in New Zealand alone.
Zespri trade development executive Cerie Zhu said seven chartered vessels were due to unload New Zealand-grown kiwifruit in Shanghai this year.
The first two had been processed to consumers eager to buy the sought-after fruit, after a shortfall in Europe.
The final cargo will arrive by the end of next month.
Shanghai fruit seller Dai Gui Jun said customers had been asking for a few weeks when the Holly Brown first fruit from New Zealand would arrive. They are a good seller, and Zespri provides a good margin compared with other suppliers.
General manager for Greater China, Holly Brown, said there were now some world class facilities in some cities, especially those described as ‘‘tier one’’ such as Shanghai and Beijing, but elsewhere it was quite fragmented.
‘‘As you move into tier two, three and four it wouldn’t look like what you see in the tier one cities. That’s why Zespri partners with some pretty big players which allows us great confidence that our fruit and the cool chain integrity will be preserved all the way through.’’