Zespri's recently-commercialised gold kiwifruit variety SunGold is enjoying solid sales in 2013 and a great reception from consumers around the world.
Zespri president of global sales and marketing Dan Mathieson gave growers an update from the markets on a recent visit to New Zealand and spoke about the growing level of confidence Zespri's customers have in SunGold (also known as Gold3 in New Zealand).
"We've had an overall positive response to this juicy new variety and its refreshing sweet/sour taste balance in Japan, the rest of Asia, Europe and North America. With an increased volume, we're now able to transition from Hort16A (Gold) to SunGold in more key markets and sales are going well," says Dan.
With volumes expected to reach 50 million by 2018, Zespri is looking to broaden the market mix for SunGold and promotions are underway in Asia, Europe and developing markets. Overall Zespri gold volumes are down this year due to the changeover from Gold to SunGold and the effects of Psa. Zespri has allocated fruit across markets to create a platform on which to build when volumes recover from 2014 onwards.
The majority of this year's SunGold crop was sold in Japan - an important and long-standing market for Zespri Gold - with significant allocations also going to Korea and China.