Some kiwifruit growers won’t make any money this year, as four major weather events are tipped to lead to the smallest green crop in 20 years.

The latest Zespri crop estimate said the company expected to export about 136 million trays of green, SunGold and RubyRed kiwifruit this season. That was down from 171 million trays last year.

The estimate could drop further when orchard assessments were completed following April’s hail event in Te Puke.

Chief executive at Zespri Dan Mathieson said there was a limited supply of kiwifruit this season.

“Particularly green kiwifruit, where we’re expecting one of the lowest volumes in the past 20 years, with around 42 million green trays available which is down from around 61 million trays in 2022.”

Chief executive of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Colin Bond said a warm winter, late frost in October last year, cyclones in January and February, and hail this April led to major crop losses.

The weather events led to total crop losses on some orchards and partial crop losses on most orchards, Bond said.

Bond said people had to remember behind those numbers were growers who wouldn’t make any money this year.

“I am yet to speak to a grower who thinks they're going to have a record crop this year. Most growers I speak to are down on last year because of the impact of one of those weather events,” Bond said.

Bond said the overall crop was the smallest it had been in about five years.

But Mathieson said there was a lot of good quality fruit this season, with good feedback from both Asian and European clients.

The industry battled fruit quality issues last year that affected the SunGold variety in particular. Losses were estimated at up to $500 million.

Bond echoed Mathieson and said he didn't think the industry should be complacent and think the quality issue was over.

“We need to remind ourselves at the start of each year, what it takes to deliver a quality product and make sure that our whole supply chain is fit for purpose.

“You don't get to a $500m problem without there being a lot of small things [wrong],” he said.

Bond said quality started on the orchard, and was affected by picking standards, packing and handling.

With less and better fruit in the market Bond said he hoped growers would get good prices.

“We are hoping for two things, a price premium in market given the reduced supply. And a reduction in quality costs because of the lessons learned last year. To give an example, a grower last year might have produced 10,000 trays a hectare, but at loss of $3 per tray for quality costs [penalties]. This year, they may only produce 8000 trays, but we're hoping they won't have the same quality costs,” Bond said.

Zespri did forecast a larger crop next year as growers rebounded from weather events this year.

“This growth is expected to continue in the years ahead, with our New Zealand supply alone forecast to reach almost 230 million trays in 2027/28. Our Northern Hemisphere supply locations are also forecast to more than double from this year’s 25 million trays by 2027/28,” Mathieson said.

Source - https://www.stuff.co.nz