Gold kiwifruit loses lustre

Prices for gold kiwifruit have fallen.

Te Puke kiwifruit grower Russell West says returns have been disappointing despite Zespri recording an exceptional season, but the orchardist is grateful not to be bankrupt following his battle with Psa.

Mr West said it was the first time he had full crops since Psa devastated his vines in 2010.

"I thank God I have recovered and got full crops and cashflow for the way forward ... albeit with rather more debt than we planned."

The gold kiwifruit returns were "awful" and had plummeted following record volumes and the forecasts "were horrible".

However, there was "no option other than to be horrible".

"When Hort 16a got Psa, Zespri offered the G3 licence to everyone as a swap but then the green kiwifruit growers said it was not fair ... the green returns have been very poor. So they offered it to everybody to get us out of the woods so to speak and I actually think they allocated more hectares of licence than would be ideal."

However the green returns had been good but if you were not going to produce more than 10,000 trays a hectare, which was hard to do, "you are not going to be making any money out of green even at $6 a tray".

Last week Zespri chairman Peter McBride said gold returns fell to $73,890 per hectare and $9.80 per tray, owing in part to the remarkable rebound in gold production, led by Gold3.

It sold 69 million trays of Zespri green kiwifruit at the highest-ever average per hectare return for the industry of $53,884 and a very strong average per tray return of $6.01.

Total gold supply increased from 11.1 million trays in 2013/14 to 18.6 million trays in 2014/15.

The lower per hectare return reflects the fact that average industry Gold3 yields are below potential at this stage, following the recovery from Psa. Average yields will increase strongly as developing canopies come into full production in the next few years, he said.

Zespri told the Bay of Plenty Times gold returns on a per-tray basis "are expected to lower in 2015/16, eventually improving as markets absorb the new volume, supported by our investment in promotion and marketing and our focus on taste."

Kiwifruit Vine Health said incidents of Psa in the Bay of Plenty were pleasingly low this season, which was linked to good weather patterns.

A spokesperson said Bay of Plenty had been managing the disease for more than four years now so they had good processes in place and moved away from vulnerable varieties.

"Growers have changed their orchard and canopy management strategies to reduce risk, this includes better hygiene practices, removing infection as it is found, improving shelter and keeping up their protective spray programmes. Research and development into ways of managing Psa-V continues."

In the 2014/2015 financial year, Zespri and KVH together invested $1.5 million in Psa R&D, including research into Psa protectant products and orchard management techniques. Another $10 million was invested in the new cultivar breeding programme, which includes the goal of developing Psa tolerant/resistant cultivars.