Prime Minister John Key officially launched the 2016 kiwifruit season for Zespri in China at an event last night, marking a new phase for Zespri's China Strategy.

Chief Executive Lain Jager says having the Prime Minister launch Zespri's season in Shanghai is a great start to what is set to be a record-breaking season.

John Key officially launching the 2016 kiwifruit season for Zespri in China.

However, a slow start to the harvest in New Zealand is putting pressure on the industry to pick and pack significantly increased volumes of fruit.

Blair Hamill, Zespri's general manager for supply chain says this season has seen a later harvest than last year but the industry is rapidly catching up.

'The harvest of Zespri Green has been notably later, but we have now packed nearly double the volume of Gold3 compared with the same week last year.

'The industry is geared up now to manage a rapid increase in picking and packing and we are confident that we will be able to collectively deliver what is needed in the coming weeks,” says Blair.

'We have been working to optimise our shipping to ensure we have the vessels available and this week have seen a strong week in container supply and in loading time for our charter vessels.”

That's crucial for all Zespri's markets, including China which will be its number one market by volume this year, with forecast sales of 24 million trays, up 30 per cent on 2015 sales of 18 million trays. China is set to account for just over one-fifth (21 percent) of all Zespri sales this season

'China is poised to become Zespri's number one market by volume this season and will account for around one-fifth of all our sales. We anticipate sales of around 24 million trays in 2016, up about one-third from the 18 million trays sold last season,” says Lain.

Zespri has launched a new phase of its China Strategy to support this growth which includes expanding to five representative offices in-market; increasing staff numbers from 25 to 90 over the next three years; and joining with local partners to investigate growing Zespri kiwifruit in China as part of its 12-month global supply strategy.

Zespri has also reconfigured its business model in China to become importer of record, recognising the maturing of its China operations and aligning with the model used in its long-established Japan and European markets.

'Ultimately this change will allow us to optimise our quality delivery in market and offer an enhanced level of service to our distribution customers.”

Zespri Kiwifruit has been sold in China for more than a decade now. Zespri is building on its history in the China market by broadening its distribution and sales from tier one and two Chinese cities and the Eastern Seaboard, expanding inland into other large provincial cities and more tier two and tier three cities.

'This expansion will be supported by new regional offices opening this year in Guangzhou, Xian and Chongqing and our in-market staff numbers are set to treble over the next few years.

'Zespri is one of the top fruit brands in the cities where we sell and we'll continue to invest strongly in marketing again this year to introduce more consumers to our premium product and build returns to our grower-shareholders.”

Zespri's investment in China continues as the company investigates the feasibility of growing Zespri Kiwifruit in China as part of its 12-month global supply strategy.

Zespri sources premium kiwifruit from the Northern Hemisphere to provide its customers with Zespri Kiwifruit where NZ kiwifruit is not available.

'We are excited about the potential of partnering with Chinese growers to supply the important domestic market season with Zespri-branded kiwifruit in the long term.

'This will support our key strategy of 12-month supply and aligns to the partnership approach we have with growers and post-harvest partners in Italy, France, Korea and Japan.”

Lain says Zespri's absolute focus on quality starts on the orchard.

'Any decision to potentially source Zespri Kiwifruit in China would be made with our reputation for premium kiwifruit top of mind and is likely some years away.”

Zespri has long-term partnerships with growers and post-harvest to source premium Zespri Kiwifruit from Northern Hemisphere.