Kiwifruit growers have enjoyed a good season. Photo / Debbie Griffiths
Despite question marks over the United States’ tariffs, kiwifruit growers have enjoyed a highly promising season.
New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated chief executive Colin Bond said the largest kiwifruit harvest yet was now largely complete, with more than 215 million trays picked.
“Both the growing season and harvest went relatively smoothly, with good growing conditions supporting crop production.
“Growers are now eagerly awaiting the prices in markets that they will achieve for their hard work.”
While it will be some time before forecasts can be made for the 2025-26 crop, he said the industry predicted a 17% increase in total supply between 2024 and 2029.
Potential tariffs on exports to the US, including kiwifruit, remain on the industry’s radar.
“While confidence in demand for our kiwifruit remains strong, we recognise that the current environment we are operating in is highly volatile,” Bond said.
“The United States is a country that we are launching our kiwifruit into and, despite the current uncertainty, there is a long-term strategy to have a consistent supply of fruit on shelves there.”
Meanwhile, Zespri chief executive Jason Te Brake said the kiwifruit marketer took steps to prepare for tariffs, working with the New Zealand Government and partners in the US “to ensure we navigate it effectively and minimise the impact on our growers and to continue to grow the market”.
“While it’s unfortunate, we take a long-term view of key markets with a focus on investing to build our brand along with demand and value in the category over time, along with investing to develop new markets to create new opportunities for growers and the industry.”
Te Brake said North America was an important growth market for Zespri, with strong demand.
“We’re committed to growing it further.
“Sales are tracking well this season, and demand is stronger than we thought it would be.”
Zespri’s 2025-26 sales programmes had started well, particularly in Europe and North America.
In its indicative June forecast, Te Brake said Zespri was “on track to deliver strong value to growers in another record crop year”.
This included average per-hectare returns for Green, Sweet Green, Organic Green and Organic SunGold Kiwifruit, now forecast to exceed last year’s record returns.
“Each season, we supply customers and consumers in more than 50 markets around the world with great-tasting, high-quality fruit as part of our mission to supply Zespri kiwifruit 12 months of the year.”
He said the majority of New Zealand-grown fruit was exported, with the balance available on the domestic market.
The New Zealand harvest usually starts in mid-February, peaks in mid-April and runs until June, with fruit shipped to market between March and November.
“In addition, we have our Zespri Global Supply operations, where we partner with growers in Italy, France, Japan, Korea and Greece, who produce kiwifruit during the northern hemisphere growing season, with this sold in the non-New Zealand season,” Te Brake said.
“This allows Zespri to have counter-seasonal supply in place to complement the New Zealand season and drive value for New Zealand growers.”
Te Brake said Zespri had a crop of more than 200 million trays from New Zealand for the 2025-26 season, with more than half of this already shipped to market.
“We supplied 196.8 million trays from New Zealand in 2024-25.”
Zespri is expecting to deliver 13.2 million of these trays to customers in the US this season (up from 11.3 million last season).
“The US is our sixth-largest market in terms of volume, following China, Japan, Spain, Germany and Korea, and we also launched RubyRed in the US for the first time this year with positive feedback from customers.”
A grower vote last year saw more than 90% support for the expansion of Zespri Global Supply, approving the allocation of up to 420 additional hectares of SunGold kiwifruit a year over six years across Italy, France, Japan, South Korea and Greece.
Previously, it was capped at 5000ha, which was fully allocated.
Te Brake said the move reflected the ability of the kiwifruit industry to come together on pressing issues with a focus on delivering strong grower returns and maintaining Zespri’s position as the leader in a competitive category.
“Our industry is creating significant value for growers and grower shareholders and the communities they support, and the outlook is positive with strong demand.
“We are currently developing our 2035 strategy to set our sights on the next 10 years and how we ensure we are best positioned to deliver the greatest value to New Zealand growers.”