"By not selling as late in Europe, having good quality fruit, and having a much better performance in the market in terms of fruit loss, that reduces a lot of the cost, which flows through to the OGR [orchard gate return]."
Zespri was estimating OGR of $5.23 for green, $7.00 for organic green, $12.60 for gold and $9.63 for green14.
The forecast also followed an excellent season selling Northern Hemisphere fruit, with Zespri sales of Italian fruit in China being a highlight.
Mr McBride said that a lot of the credit lay with the post harvest sector's performance, reinforced by strong underlying demand.
"It's very good for the confidence of the growers," said Mr McBride, who noted that the result had also been achieved with a slightly lower fruit size profile than hoped for, a result of the dry summer. With bigger fruit, OGR would have been even better, he said.
"Your pricing is a lot more difficult on small sizes because you are competing head on with the Chile."
Mr McBride said that estimates were based on past performance and records and, while Zespri aimed for accuracy, forecasts tended to be on the conservative side.
"But if we look at the reduction in costs, it's been a stunning result in Europe this year."
In addition, volumes of the more profitable Gold variety were forecast to increase in the coming season.
Neal Trebilco, growers president of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc, also praised the improved post-harvest and in-market performance.
"Obviously there have been significant savings offshore.
"This is on the back of very low fruit loss onshore and in this case offshore, so in this case it's lowered costs quite significantly.
"There is already good confidence amongst the growers. This will just renew that confidence," he said.
