Hard times ahead for the country’s kiwifruit growers

This is due to the amount of poor quality fruit from 2022 and those growers who had their crops damaged, or in some cases entirely wiped out, by the frost in October.

This all came to a head a few weeks ago when Zespri announced it was suspending progress payments to growers in February because of the high amount of poor quality fruit from the 2022 season. The kiwifruit company also says it’s had claims about poor quality fruit from overseas buyers that hadn’t been earlier accounted for.

Last season’s poor fruit quality has been put down to a number of reasons, including the lack of experienced harvest staff which saw fruit get damaged along the supply chain.

NZ Kiwifruit Growers (NZKGI) chief executive Colin Bond told Rural News that growers had been expecting to get at least $6.00 a tray for their fruit. However, he says this now seems unlikely.

Bond says ideally growers would hope to get $7.00 per tray, but to go below $6.00 will be hugely challenging.

“This will mean that an increased number of green kiwifruit growers will be making a loss on the 2022 harvest.”

Zespri has been holding meetings with growers to explain the situation and chief executive Dan Mathieson flew in from his base in Singapore to front these meetings. Bond says the reaction was mixed with disappointment and – in some cases – anger at the late notice of the news.

“If you were a green grower and you were relying on those payments to pay your February bills, that will be hard,” he told Rural News.

“Growers have some challenging months ahead as they figure out how they are going to cover the costs from this current harvest. For a lot of them, they will also have been impacted by the frost – so they are not expecting a great 2023 season either.”

Bond says NZKGI is waiting to see what Zespri will say about future payments so they can get a clear picture of the problem. He says once this is known they will approach the banks and brief them on what is happening across the industry.

Bond believes this will save individual orchardists having to do this themselves. However, he adds that growers will have to work out their own financial position with their bankers.

“Over the last five to six years the banks, as well as growers, have done well out of the kiwifruit industry,” he adds. “So, it’s important that the banks put an umbrella over the sector during these rainy times because good times will come again and we’d like them to be a part of that journey.”

Bond is urging growers who are facing hardship to seek support and says the Rural Support Trust is there waiting to help.

Frost Bite

Still unknown, at this stage, is the full effect of last October’s frost.

There is talk of some fruit on vines with abnormal shapes. Bond says in a matter of a few weeks they hope to get a more accurate handle on size of the losses.

Zespri has said it could result in the loss of 20% of the season’s crop.

Meanwhile, Bond says the labour problems of the past won’t be so great with backpackers already in the country picking summerfruit, who will be available for the kiwifruit harvest.