NZ apples pick of the bunch

Innovations emerging from NZ’s apple industry will increasingly impact production and marketing throughout the world, says the US based world fruit market analyst Belrose, which publishes the World Apple Review.

NZ’s high productivity gains helped deliver the outstanding performance, ahead of its closest rivals Chile and the US.

NZ Apples & Pears chief executive Alan Pollard says being named the best in the world is a huge honour.

He says the world leading ranking comes as a huge reward to NZ’s $850 million apple industry which is celebrating one of its best seasons this year. This also recognises the efforts of the thousands of Kiwis working in the sector.

“To earn and then retain this world leading title year on year is an outstanding achievement, and rewards everyone who is part of NZ’s exciting and dynamic apple industry.

“This is an incredibly exciting time for our apple industry, together we are growing great people and the best apples for the world.

The World Apple Review says given NZ’s relatively small size, export orientation and distance from major markets, it had long relied heavily on innovation to provide it with a competitive edge.

It had been the leader in popularising Gala and Fuji, pioneered the first true club variety JazzR, developed and produced a stream of new varieties Pacific RoseR, EnvyR, SmittenR and KoruR.

Pollard says not only has the industry benefited from this varietal innovation, but the NZ Government via its crown research institute Plant & Food Research has benefited significantly through royalty streams on these successful varieties.

In ranking the 33 countries, the World Apple Review compares production efficiency, infrastructure and inputs, and financial and market data. NZ was the best performer when all three rankings were combined.

According to the review, over the past two seasons, NZ’s top performance was earned by exploiting new growing strategies and technologies that had produced 2.5 times the average yield per hectare of the rest of world’s apple growing countries.

In general, off-season exporting countries like NZ had been forced to continually upgrade production systems to meet growing demands from the northern hemisphere.

The report stated that probably the single, most significant measure of innovation in a country’s orchards is the percentage of new varieties in production. It specifically highlighted how NZ was still searching for newer apple varieties to remain ahead of the field.