Record Kiwifruit Harvest Brings Optimism, but Green Growers Face Profitability Challenges
Signs for the 2026-27 kiwifruit crop look good, but there are still some challenges for growers – especially those who produce green kiwifruit.
That’s the message from Colin Bond, chief executive of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI) – the organisation that represents the nation’s kiwifruit growers.
He says all the Red kiwifruit has been sold into the market and most of the Gold and Green has been shipped. Bond says the feedback from the market has been extremely positive around fruit quality this year and they are very excited about what the rest of the season holds.
He says it will be close to record payouts for some of the smaller kiwifruit product groups such as organic and still very strong for Sun Gold, although not quite a record, and returns for green growers will be better after a few difficult years.
“However, there are certainly headwinds,” he told Rural News.
“In China for example we are seeing a slight drop in consumer confidence and similarly in Japan. But a big positive is the fact that kiwifruit has a diversified market portfolio and an example of this is that Europe is going extremely well,” he says.
Bond says on balance the sector looks to a strong season, notwithstanding the few headwinds. He says there is no such thing as perfect season but all the messages they are hearing out of Zespri are positive.
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He says this is the time of the year when kiwifruit orchardists start thinking about late frosts and setting themselves up for a good 2026 crop.
Bond says winter pruning has now been done for most of crops and Red growers will be thinking about bud break.
