\u201cWe are confident in the future of our China market, but it is becoming more challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are facing increased competition from locally grown G3, which is increasingly competing with more variable New Zealand G3 at the back end of our season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe emergence of Chinese G3, supported by strong quality, brands and routes to market, is something we need to respond to strongly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus is on having high-quality fruit on shelves all year round to protect and build our brand, retain shelf space, strengthen relationships with our partners and maintain our category leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brand protection<\/p>\n
Te Brake said the focus was on delivering a solution that protected Zespri\u2019s premium brand and grower returns in China, now and into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur priority will always be maximising New Zealand grower returns and, as part of that, we need to give ourselves the ability to compete as strongly as possible, securing our retail, distribution and supply-chain relationships with the highest-quality fruit year-round.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat fruit quality is critical. We can only command a premium when our quality consistently justifies it, and the clear feedback from our customers is that, at the moment, it does not, particularly at the back end of the season where quality is variable and where fruit is competing directly with Chinese G3.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means higher quality costs, slower sales and a risk to our brand premium over time if we don\u2019t respond.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny solution also needs to be practical and sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zespri has been discussing two options with the industry.<\/p>\n
The first is to continue competing from New Zealand, focusing on improving late-season quality, investing in post-harvest innovation and developing long-storing varieties.<\/p>\n
The second is a tightly controlled China Supply procurement model.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we pursue China Supply, the model must create and protect value for New Zealand growers while giving Chinese partners a clear incentive to meet Zespri standards and support the brand long term,\u201d Te Brake said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are risks and opportunities with both options, and we will keep working through these openly with growers over the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said no decisions had been made and any proposal would proceed only with grower support through a producer vote.<\/p>\n
Strong returns<\/p>\n
With Zespri entering the latter stages of the 2026 season, its latest forecast expects strong returns for growers from a record crop of 225 million trays.<\/p>\n
The August forecast shows average per-hectare returns are expected to exceed last year\u2019s record returns for all categories except Green and Organic Green.<\/p>\n
Te Brake said the forecast per-hectare returns reflect this season\u2019s increased yields and the value secured across global markets despite a more challenging market environment.<\/p>\n
Mike Murphy, head of communications and strategic projects at New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI), said the higher yields resulted from good pollination, an increase in orchard hectares and favourable weather.<\/p>\n
He also noted growers should prepare for the upcoming El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern, which was forecast to bring dry conditions interspersed with heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreparedness for both irrigation and drainage systems will be front of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te Brake said forecast per-tray returns remained within the indicative ranges provided by Zespri in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreen and Organic per-tray returns reflect strong demand, lower Green volumes and the expectation of a shorter selling window this season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSunGold forecast returns reflect a more challenging market environment, with increased competition from summer fruit, pricing pressure across parts of Asia and a larger-than-expected crop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te Brake said with more fruit to sell, the focus had been on managing the allocation of this year\u2019s crop to help maximise grower returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuality remains our major focus as we move through the second half of the sales season, with our teams managing this through careful market allocation and inventory management, and by working closely with suppliers and customers to maximise value for growers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are confident in the future of our China market, but it is becoming more challenging. \u201cWe are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[806,138,9084,607,4444,4596,18205,16118,1958,2065,307328,83644,2454,23553,57098,220,13234,1432,13233,111,139,69,4993,10715,16121,312,19862,57095],"class_list":["post-625677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-as","tag-business","tag-challenges","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-competition","tag-considers","tag-export","tag-focus","tag-fruit","tag-g3","tag-increasing","tag-industry","tag-kiwifruit","tag-marketer","tag-markets","tag-maunganuibased","tag-model","tag-mount","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quality","tag-remains","tag-responds","tag-says","tag-supply","tag-zespri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}