increase font size
A symbol of status and wealth.
Zespri brand kiwifruit has become a symbol of status and wealth in China.
Zespri's chief operating officer Simon Limmer says change in China has the newly wealthy showing success by buying and showing their friends premium products such as cars and clothing.
Zespri kiwifruit is a premium brand distinguished from other kiwifruit on sale in China, Limmer says. The kiwifruit marketer will this year spend about $150 million on the brand – about 7% of its $2 billion business.
"Zespri is taking a premium position in the market. We are one of the leading, if not the leading, brand in the fruit industry," he told Rural News. "We are very much at the higher end in quality fruit and pricing. We are recognised as consistently delivering a high quality, good tasting fruit with health benefits, which allows us to occupy that position in the market."
Limmer says Zespri has only one product and one brand and it lives and dies by that.
"When Chinese consumers think about Zespri they think about consistency. So when they pick up a Zespri kiwifruit – as opposed to any other kiwifruit – they are going to have a good taste experience and know it will ripen in the fruit bowl, unlike some other kiwifruit," he explains.
"Also our quality systems give the Chinese consumers confidence that what they are buying is going to be good."
Limmer says there is still a lot of scope for expansion in the Chinese market. China grows about 1.5m tonnes of kiwifruit, contrasting with the mere 100,000 tonnes Zespri exports there. But Zespri holds the premium position in the market, in which some other kiwifruit is of variable quality.
Zespri has deliberately has a strategy of occupying the top end of the market, realising that NZ is not a low cost producer and that its strength lies in its ability to extract top dollars from a premium product. But even at the high end of the market there are plenty of opportunities for growth, Limmer says.
'We are seeing our ability to create new demand, to open up new markets such as China. Ten ago it was a very small market; today it is 20% of our total portfolio and that is exciting.
One of the most galling aspects of the tariffs whacked on our farm exports to the US is the fact that, now more than ever, US farmers are being propped up by government welfare – a direct result of Trump’s hardline on its trading partners.
China looks set to play a key role in helping the New Zealand wool sector shift away from trading as a commodity supplier.
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.
If you find a new consumer in a developed wine market, you are taking them from someone else, says Blank Canvas co-founder Sophie Parker-Thomson MW.
The large 2025 harvest will exacerbate the wine industry's "lingering" supply from recent vintages, New Zealand Winegrowers Chief Executive Philip Gregan told attendees at Grape Days events around the country in June.
Acclaimed fruit grower Dean Astill never imagined he would have achieved so much in the years since being named the first Young Horticulturist of the Year, 20 years ago.
The Ashburton-based Carrfields Group continues to show commitment to future growth and in the agricultural sector with its latest investment, the recently acquired 'Spring Farm' adjacent to State Highway 1, Winslow, just south of Ashburton.
New Zealand First leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has blasted Fonterra farmers shareholders for approving the sale of iconic brands to a French company.
A major feature of the Ashburton A&P Show, to be held on October 31 and November 1, will be the annual trans-Tasman Sheep Dog Trial test match, with the best heading dogs from both sides of the Tasman going head-to-head in two teams of four.
Fewer bobby calves are heading to the works this season, as more dairy farmers recognise the value of rearing calves for beef.
The key to a dairy system that generates high profit with a low emissions intensity is using low footprint feed, says Fonterra program manager on-farm excellence, Louise Cook.
OPINION: The Greens have taken the high moral ground on the Palestine issue and been leading political agitators in related…
One of the most galling aspects of the tariffs whacked on our farm exports to the US is the fact…
