Last kiwifruit export ship of the season sails for Japan

The Asian Lily, last of Zespri's 67 charter vessels of the season, leaves the Port of Tauranga. Photo / Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media

The last of the 67 charter vessels for the 2016 NZ kiwifruit season - the Asian Lily V27 - left Tauranga yesterday with 2343 pallets of Green kiwifruit, headed for the Japanese ports of Tokyo and Kobe.

The 2016 season has broken records with volumes of Gold kiwifruit up 67 per cent from 27 million trays last season to 45 million trays, as new plantings to replace vines hit by PSA in 2010 come into full production, says exporting company Zespri.

"The industry investment in infrastructure has meant that the increased Gold volumes have been processed well this season," said Zespri chief operating officer Simon Limmer.

He added that every season brought its challenges and noted people had worked incredibly hard across the industry to deliver another strong result.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc chief executive Nikki Johnson said Gold had been a spectacular success this season, with orchard gate returns (OGR) per tray as of October estimated at $8.21.

"It's been a good season from a production point of view," she said.

"But some of our Green growers may have been struggling a bit with their returns."

Green OGR per tray was estimated at $4.22 as of October as a consequence of high production volumes this season. However, said Ms Johnson, Green volumes for the coming season were not expected to be as high, which should see better returns.

Mr Limmer said that Zespri was on track to more than double sales revenue from nearly $2 billion last season to $4.5 billion by 2025.

Zespri's in-market teams were driving sales for the last few weeks of the 2016 New Zealand sales season, he said. "The first sales of the Northern Hemisphere-grown SunGold are under way in Europe, with product on the water to Asia."

Zespri sources kiwifruit from Northern Hemisphere orchards for the few months of the year when New Zealand-grown kiwifruit is not available, with about 10.5 million trays of Green and six million trays of Gold expected to be sold from supplying orchards.

The forecast volumes for 2016 New Zealand season:

* Green: 80 million trays

* Gold: 45 million trays

* Organic Green: 3.8 million trays