Saturday, March 30, 2024

Zespri signals higher prices coming for growers

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Kiwifruit marketer Zespri is forecasting a lift of up to 6% in payments to growers this season.
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The firm, which markets kiwifruit on behalf of 2500 New Zealand growers and another 1200 in Italy, Japan, Korea and France, expects total fruit and service payments of $1.775 billion to $1.875b in the year ending March 2020.

Zespri is yet to publish its March 2019 year results but in February forecast a total payment of almost $1.77b. That figure, which excludes loyalty payments, compares with $1.43b in the year ended March 2018.

Kiwifruit is NZ’s biggest horticultural export. 

Export earnings reached almost $1.7b in the June 2017 year, a third of the sector’s total. The next largest contributors were wine at $1.54b and apples at $691 million.

Zespri chairman Bruce Cameron reminded growers and shareholders the forecasts are the first for the 2019-20 season and still subject to significant uncertainty.

In February the company forecast a net profit range of $177-$180m for the March 2019 year, up from the initial $170-$175m it estimated this time last year and the $101.8m net profit Zespri reported for the 2018 year.

For the March 2020 year it is forecasting net profit of $180-$195m, including increased gross revenue from the 2019 licensing of its Sungold or Gold3 variety.

Compared with this time last year, Zespri is picking significantly better prices for growers of Green14 fruit and slightly better prices for gold fruit and organic green fruit.

Traditional green fruit is expected to deliver growers $5.20-$6.20 a tray this year, against the 2018-19 payout of $5.36 that Zespri signalled in February.

Organic green fruit might achieve $8-$9 a tray, against the $8.88 signalled for 2019, gold fruit might bring in $9.70-$10.70 a tray, against the $10.80 signalled for 2019 and Green14 fruit might bring in $7-$8.50 a tray, against the $7.21 signalled in February for the year just ended. – BusinessDesk

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