Zespri Forecasts Record Returns for 2025/26 Kiwifruit Season
According to Zespri's November forecast for the 2025/26 season, returns are likely to be up for all fruit groups compared to the last forecast in August.
One aspect of the tender process is a good spread of hectares among growers, with 266 successful bids and an average size of bids well under 2ha for each category, it says in its Kiwiflier newsletter.
Zespri chairman Peter McBride says, "It is satisfying to see relatively broad participation in the process. The level of participation and the high median price of successful bids reflect, I believe, the strong level of confidence in the product."
The average size of the successful bid was 1.31ha for the restricted tender (for Green and Green14 conversions) and 1.77ha for the unrestricted tender.
The result indicates a good level of accessibility in the process, with just one successful bid for more than 10ha of licence. Both the restricted and unrestricted tenders were oversubscribed, and the available area was allocated to the highest priced valid bids.
The regional spread of licence allocation was concentrated in the Bay of Plenty but there were allocations also in Gisborne, Waikato, Auckland, Coromandel, Hawkes Bay and Northland.
Zespri will provide an update on the performance of Gold3 in the markets later in the season. It is expected that in November there will be sufficient information to provide the industry a clear signal regarding the potential release of Gold3 hectares
