By Philippa Stevenson
A smaller kiwifruit crop is all that is standing between growers and returns that would eclipse last year's record level.
Today, in its first payout forecast for the 1999 season, Kiwifruit New Zealand predicts growers will receive an end-of-year, net distributable return of $399.2 million, just 3 per cent
behind 1998's $410.6 million.
Average returns are forecast to be 70 cents per tray higher than last year at $7.22 but the overall result will be pulled down by a 13 per cent reduction in total tray numbers. Last year there were 63.2 million trays, this year 55.3 million.
Kiwifruit NZ chairman Doug Voss said he was very pleased with the result, given the challenges in markets, particularly Europe which had huge volumes of summer fruit.
Last week, before heading overseas to view markets first hand, chief executive Tony Marks of sole marketer Zespri International, said results reflected the limited supply of kiwifruit, a full-on marketing programme and an excellent product.
"The combination of all those seems to have given us the opportunity of distinguishing our product even among the tsunami of summer fruit," he said.
The good kiwifruit result is in contrast with poor returns for apple growers' mainstay braeburn variety in many of the same markets.
Apple marketer Enza said in markets awash with fruit it was losing out to consumer shifts to exotic varieties. Mr Marks said kiwifruit was not considered exotic but "doesn't appear to be one of those fruit that is substitutable."
In its second year on the market, Zespri Gold was showing its potential with a 100 per cent premium per tray over the conventional green product. Returns per tray have been forecast at $14.95.
Mr Marks said the marketing of gold fruit was still experimental with 300,000 trays on the market compared with last year's 80,000.
Next year there could be more than two million trays and "that's when we start getting serious".
