Summerfruit
This commentary discusses the New Zealand summerfruit industry in the two main production regions, Hawke's Bay and Central Otago. Hawke's Bay growers mainly supply the domestic market with fresh dessert summerfruit and Heinz-Wattie with processing fruit. Central Otago is much more export orientated and grows a wider variety of summerfruit, with a larger proportion of cherries and apricots.
Key Points
- The New Zealand domestic market was extremely depressed with wholesale returns down 20-30% on the previous year.
- Export volumes out of New Zealand rose by 19% overall, with the largest increase in apricots of 43%.
- Central Otago and Marlborough are the two major exporting regions while Hawke's Bay continues to concentrate on the domestic market.
- Heinz-Wattie processed 7,800 tonnes of peaches in the year 2000, well up on the 6,200 tonnes processed in 1999.
- The Summerfruit Integrated Fruit Production programme, "SummerGreen", has been well received by growers and will continue to gather momentum.
Physical Factors
Climate
Hawke's Bay had an average growing season, with a lack of rainfall over the critical flowering and harvesting periods the most positive aspect. Significant rainfall in November did not pose any brown rot risk (see Table 1). The remaining rainfall was relatively insignificant, resulting in very little brown rot loss. The real problem was a cool December and January with mean temperatures down 11% and 5% respectively on the previous two-year average. This resulted in poor fruit colour and low sugars in the later dessert varieties, which affected consumer demand.
This year Central Otago's summer weather pattern produced some direct contrasts to the previous season with considerably cooler conditions featuring from mid-November. By the end of December, Growing Degree Days (GDD) were down 5.5%, with Cromwell the hardest hit at minus 10.1%. The GDD situation continued to drop and by the end of April was 23% down on the previous year.
The new year also brought considerable rain throughout Central Otago with heavy falls of up to 165 mm in the lower valleys. Central Otago often receives moderate rainfall around the Christmas period, but this year it fell in the first week of the new year which significantly affected export cherry and apricot crops. Some growers, especially around Roxburgh, lost up to half of their expected harvest of cherries and apricots, while those growers further inland reported losses of between 15% and 30%.
The amount of damage sustained by individual orchards was directly related to the point they had reached in the harvest, with earlier properties getting off lightly and those at the peak of their harvest losing 30-50%. One orchard in the Roxburgh area used rain covers over cherries with considerable success and expects to expand the covered area for the coming season. Several of the bigger cherry growers are heading to the United States and Canada in June to look into covering methods as well as new varieties.
Source: Crop Health Services using Lawn Road "Orchard 2000" weather station
*GDD – Growing Degree Days (a measure of the heat units available for plant metabolism)
Production
Export Market
Central Otago summerfruit crop levels were described as average on a per tree or per hectare basis, although the new year rains claimed around 20% of the cherries and apricots, with a further portion being downgraded from export to local market or processing. The local market was over-supplied, resulting in depressed prices, with some growers being told not to send fruit.
The bulk of the export crop was produced in the Marlborough and Central Otago districts. Hawke's Bay only supplied very small quantities to export markets.
Ninety-five percent of Hawke's Bay production was sold on the New Zealand domestic market.
Cherry production was still much lower than the highs of 1997/98 and 1994/95. In spite of greatly increased plantings, some of which are now producing, the rain had the final say and growers now consider they can expect severe rain losses three years out of 11. There is renewed interest in rain covering.
Apricot exports rose dramatically with a 43% increase in volume, of which a large proportion was exported in tray form, indicating larger sized fruit.
The decline of the yellow fleshed nectarine, referred to 10 years ago as the next kiwifruit, continues. The fruit is now considered as a local market prospect only, and large numbers of trees in both Hawke's Bay and Central Otago are scheduled for removal this winter. White fleshed nectarines still have export prospects, particularly in Taiwan. However, there are only limited suitable varieties available. The Australian market is now largely self-sufficient in yellow fleshed nectarines, and this has depressed demand for imported product. The only opportunity for export into Australia appears to be in apricots at certain times of the year.
Peaches have posted record export tonnages for the year. In common with nectarines, there continues to be a real demand for large white fleshed fruit in Taiwan, and indications are that the market could be very lucrative. There continues to be a lack of suitable, proven cultivars.
Plum exports doubled and it is believed there are exciting opportunities for this fruit. There are already significant plantings of new cultivars, and fruit performance from these plantings is being watched with interest. The trend is to large well-coloured russet and blemish-free fruit, which is finding financially rewarding markets. Of interest this year was the export of greengages in 1 kg plastic punnets.
Export summerfruit in the 1999/2000 season increased by 19% over the 1998/99 year. With the summerfruit plantings already in the ground, this figure will clearly increase in future years.
Source: New Zealand Summerfruit Export Council Ltd
Local Market
Growers have commented unfavourably on the power of the supermarkets, stating there was little competition, and prices were dictated to growers on a 'take it or leave it' basis. Since summerfruit is a perishable item there is little room for the grower to negotiate. Most fruit is sold on a private treaty arrangement with little or no opportunity to use the auction system to establish the price of the day. Small growers have no option except to amalgamate with other growers under a common brand to ensure they have sufficient scale to attract buyer interest. Wholesalers are not interested in dealing with small suppliers unless they have a very unique product.
The move to create packhouse and market outlet exclusive relationships, signalled in this publication last year, continues to gather momentum. Some larger packhouse operations now supply just one market outlet with pre-season arranged market specifications and volumes. This is really 'growing to order' and may become common place with the larger operators.
At the current speed of change any grower not locked into a substantial packhouse/market outlet relationship may soon find it impossible to place product into any large outlet and be reduced to selling the produce direct to small stores, schools and processors.
With volumes likely to continue to increase, Hawke's Bay growers are concerned the prospects for next year are not much better. To avoid this situation growers are investigating all export options available to them. If a reasonable proportion of the Hawke's Bay crop can be exported, it will help maintain reasonable domestic returns.
Processing
Heinz-Wattie and their grower suppliers in Hawke's Bay had a good season, with increased processed volumes of all summerfruit. The Golden Queen crop was up from 6,000 tonnes last year to 7,200 tonnes this year and the Golden Tatura crop tripled from 200 tonnes to 600 tonnes. The peach price has remained stable at approximately $500/tonne. Plum supplies increased to 375 tonnes, at an average price of $800/tonne. The plum increase is due to the Craig's jam processing operation shifting from Auckland to Hastings. Processing volumes are expected to be similar to next season. The Golden Queen volume is entirely dependent on the New Zealand domestic demand as all canned product is sold locally.
Apricot processing in Central Otago continues to return to growers slightly less than the cost of production, which is estimated to be around 80ÿc/kg. Supplying fruit for processing is considered a salvage operation and is at best suitable as an outlet for packhouse export over-run or blocks unsuitable for export. Plums are the exception, and economic returns are being achieved. There are very limited opportunities for processing nectarines, peaches and cherries in Central Otago, and any outlets are limited to the production of specialty lines. A small amount of fruit is still procured for drying with the finished product selling at $3 for 200 g.
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