February 2020 - BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS

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16 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS February 2020 Red kiwifruit finally gets green light from Zespri Despite the strong success of Green and Gold kiwifruit, the industry will welcome more diversification. By RICHARD RENNIE After many years of delays and breeding challenges, Zespri has given the green light to growers wanting to trial the long-awaited Red variety of kiwifruit. Prospects are that 150ha will initially be planted, depending upon budwood availability this autumn. The pathway to Red’s commercialisation has been a long one. Initial hopes the launch would come almost a decade ago were dashed by the arrival of Psa. The impact on the varieties cultivated by Plant and Food Research was devastating, wiping out 80 percent of the fruit’s first-generation cultivars. Promises the fruit would be finally available three years ago stalled. But the marketer has now announced a soft launch for issuing the new variety to growers. The latest iteration of the breed is sourced from the cultivars that survived the Psa outbreak. David Courtney, Zespri’s grower and alliance leader, said the latest cultivar had proved to be tolerant to Psa. Another challenge has been ensuring the fruit had adequate shelf life to make it a viable exporting option. Courtney said it was acknowledged the Red variety required softer handling and had a shorter shelf life. For this reason, Asia was most likely to be the first destination for the limited export volumes as production ramps up. Trials will continue in other Zespri production regions in Northern Hemisphere to determine the commercial potential of the cultivar in different environments. Supply chain test to come Courtney said the fruit could only be fully tested when it was exposed to the entire supply chain environment. Zespri growers in the Northern Hemisphere have faced a challenging year dealing with Red kiwifruit: finally ready for release. Photo/Zespri. brown marmorated stink bug invasions and a deadly emerging fungal disease. Meanwhile, consumers appear ready and waiting for a fruit described as having a “sweetish, berry like” flavour, with good reception from all exposed to it in sensory tests and early marketing trials. The fruit’s red colour was linked to the presence of anthocyanin, a unique and naturally occurring pigment with the fruit linked to cardiovascular and cognitive health. New Zealand consumers are expected to be able to enjoy the Red variety in selected supermarkets and fruit outlets in 2020 and 2021, as production volume increases. New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated chief executive Nikki Johnson welcomed a more diverse portfolio Another challenge has been ensuring the fruit had adequate shelf life to make it a viable exporting option.” for growers, and said the diversification would support the fruit securing and maintaining supermarket shelf space. However, she also cautioned growers to carefully assess risks associated with the new variety to make an informed decision if they decided to participate in any tender process to allocate bud wood for the proposed 150ha. SunGold prolific SunGold, the replacement gold kiwifruit for Hort 16a that was decimated by Psa, was initially available to growers at a licensing cost of about $7000 per ha in 2013. This year, the 700ha allocated is expected to cost $280,000 per ha. So far SunGold has surprised growers by its prolific cropping ability, with yields as high as 18,000 trays per ha achievable with good management. It has also proven capable of being grown well beyond the traditional Western Bay of Plenty kiwifruit region, extending into Eastern Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay and even Waikato. Courtney said Zespri had not yet decided what mechanism it would use to distribute the initial Red crop supply. Courtney said so far Red was only under trial across the Bay of Plenty, but had proven to be performing well, if not cropping as prolifically as SunGold. The launch of Red is hoped to help Zespri reach its ambition to achieve $4.5 billion of exports by 2025. This year, the company is expected to exceed $2.0 billion in export sales.
February 2020 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS 17 Honey prices plunge Honey companies are concerned about a glut of product hitting the market. By RICHARD RENNIE Bay of Plenty beekeepers and honey producers are finding business tough as honey prices plunge to near record lows, with little sign of recovery. The price fall comes amid a flood of bulk Chinese-produced honey hitting global markets, leaving New Zealand producers incapable of matching it and making a profit at prices now as low as $3.50 a kg. Russell Berry, head of family-owned and Rotorua-based Arataki Honey, said he fully expected a number of beekeepers to be out of business in the coming year as a result of the price slide. Berry’s operation is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, overseeing 20,000 hives across much of the country and supplying 32 percent of the honey sold in New Zealand supermarkets. Berry has spent more than 60 years involved in the industry. “It is understood a big portion of the honey coming out of China is fake and the volumes have pushed the price down from $12.50 a kg to $3.50 a kg,” he said. “Beekeepers need about $7 a kg to break even. “ In a good season you will produce more honey with more hives, in an average year less, but in a poor year it will be significantly less.” – Russell Berry Propolis problems Berry said New Zealand beekeepers also had a problem with Propolis, a resinous mix honey bees produce, which is typically used in wound healing and skin creams and is another important part of beekeepers’ income. “… there is also a cheap imported source coming into the country and pulling the price down to the point we can’t sell ours anymore.” Berry said the high prices several years ago and the attention focused on Manuka honey had encouraged significant numbers of new beekeeping ventures to start. Today New Zealand has record high hive numbers, totalling 1.0 million, up from only 270,000 a decade ago and now has more hives than Australia. “The banks have also been encouraging beekeeping ventures, lending money on hives which is something we had never seen before,” said Berry. But as a result, the high number of hives meant the country was effectively overstocked with bees. He estimated New Zealand could afford to lose at least 25 percent of the hives and probably produce more honey. “In a good season you will produce more honey with more hives, in an average year less, but in a poor year it will be significantly less.” The industry has tended to blame poor weather for the past couple of season’s lower harvests, but Berry put it down to the higher beekeeper numbers. “Some are going to have extreme difficulty in the coming year. The only thing saving many at the moment is the price of Manuka.” Berry cautioned there were several processors around who had committed to very high value longer-term Manuka contracts, and they would find these too would be undermined by an easing of prices now being experienced. Issues around Manuka standards were also meaning a portion was now being fed into the bulk honey market, further depressing prices. Jane Lorimer, president of NZ Beekeeping, runs multiple hives from the Kaimais across the Waikato. She confirmed additional Manuka was not helping, and this was in part due to ambiguity over the Manuka standards. “Much of it is Manuka that has not graded as Manuka according to the standards.” She said beekeepers this year had to consider whether to even harvest and extracting honey. “You can’t stop bees making honey, but you just don’t collect it. This comes as we are also starting to see good honey flows this season.” Higher compliance costs were also impacting cashstrapped beekeepers, with risk management programmes now required twice a year, at close to twice the previous cost per completion. Pollination options Lorimer said many Bay of Plenty and Waikato beekeepers would at least have their income supplemented by supplying bees for kiwifruit pollination. However, she predicted the sector was up for a significant correction with fallout likely to impact for at least the next two seasons. John Rawcliffe, spokesman for the Manuka Honey Appellation Society, said the poor prices proved New Zealand simply could not compete on the global bulk honey market and needed to focus on mono-floral high value varieties. In September the Manuka honey industry welcomed an injection of almost $6 million to help maintain provenance claims for the variety. Over $5 million went to the Manuka Honey Appellation Society and the society has applied to Chinese authorities to protect the variety there, having already gained that protection in the United Kingdom. Concerns over rising numbers of beehives. Photo iStock
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February 2020 - BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS

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