At 32 million trays, the New Zealand kiwifruit industry has harvested its biggest ever gold crop, a sure sign of the recovery from the disease Psa-V.

However, greater volumes means per tray returns for growers have fallen.

Volumes of Zespri SunGold kiwifruit are expected to grow dramatically in the next five years.

Zespri CEO Lain Jager says it's been a stellar growing season for the industry and growers were well aware that increased production would mean decreased tray returns.

But increased per hectare yields for both green and gold fruit will take the sting out of the price drop.

Last season growers of gold kiwifruit received $9.80 per tray – the forecast for the 2015 season is $6.70 to $7.20.

Growers of green kiwifruit, who have produced a crop of 80 million trays, also face decrease per tray returns. Last season they received $6.01 per tray – this year the prediction is for $5 to $5.50 per tray.

Lain says sales of all Zespri fruit are strong and will continue in international markets until the end of November.

The new variety SunGold is being well received and its high dry matter means it tastes great, but Lain says as a new kiwifruit variety it does require strong promotion in the markets.

'Zespri spends $2 a tray on promotion and this is essential as over the next three to five years we expect another 30 million trays of SunGold to be produced.”

Prices were higher in 2014 because of lower volumes of fruit as the industry recovered from the vine disease Psa-V and the reduction in competition from Chilean fruit because of severe frosts in that country.

'This season the international fruit market has been strong, partly because of a shortage in the supply of bananas which helped create robust demand for other fruits.”

Zespri scored a major coup in June when McDonald's included one Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit and spife (combination spoon-knife to cut and scoop) with every McDonald's Happy Meal in more than 400 McDonald's Mexico restaurants.

Lain says it would be wonderful if McDonald's rolled out the same promotion in other restaurants, particularly in the USA which is not traditionally a strong market for New Zealand kiwifruit. Zespri believes SunGold fruit will appeal to the American palate and is working with key retailers to unlock that market's potential for Zespri kiwifruit.