Ōpōtiki grower wins 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award
Brett Wotton, an Eastern Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor, has won the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for his work to support lifting fruit quality across the industry.
The growers’ organisation, New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI) says 2025 marks the earliest ever harvest of this fruit and the crop itself is expected to break the 200 million tray mark.
The 2025 kiwifruit harvest has begun with the first fruit picked just outside Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty, making it the earliest ever harvest.
On top of that Zespri which markets kiwifruit says the bumper crop is expected to exceed its longstanding target of earning $4.5 billion in export sales.
Zespri chief executive Jason Te Brake says this is a tremendous effort from the industry and reflects their commitment to building brandled demand, delivering outstanding quality kiwifruit to markets and innovating to create value for growers.
“The forecast per tray returns have strengthened from the last forecast in November for all fruit categories other than Green, which remains in line with November’s forecast,” he says.
Te Brake says at a per hectare level, returns for Green and Organic Green have reached record levels off the back of this season’s improved yields and the strong value secured for fruit throughout the season. Sun- Gold per-hectare returns have also increased from November, while forecast RubyRed Kiwifruit returns remain steady on both a per tray and per hectare basis.
The honour of being the first kiwifruit orchard to have fruit picked went to growers Mark and Josie Ruiter from the Eastern Bay of Plenty. In their case their fruit was the early maturing red variety RubyRed and this will soon be on supermarket shelves in New Zealand and some overseas markets, followed shortly after by the Gold and Green varieties. The couple say they are very excited about being the first orchard to have kiwifruit picked.
If the harvest reaches the 200 million tray mark in the coming months, this will be a modest increase from last year’s record-breaking season of more than 190 million trays. On average, each tray has around 30 pieces of kiwifruit. The harvest traditionally peaks in mid-April and runs through until June.
NZKGI chief executive Colin Bond says he shares growers’ enthusiasm about the current season.
“While my thoughts are with those Tasman and Whakatane growers who received significant hail damage at the end of last December, overall growers have experienced a great lead up to harvest, with ideal sun and little wind, to produce excellent kiwifruit”, he says.
Bond says over the last few years the kiwifruit industry has been working collaboratively to ensure our supply chain is robust to export increased volumes and deliver high-quality fruit to consumers around the world.
