Stunning prices are being paid for gold kiwifruit licenses this year.
Each year, Zespri releases licenses to grow the fruit, which growers then bid for.
This year, 350 hectares for gold kiwifruit were up for grabs - half of what was offered last year.
Zespri said the reduction is due to higher-than-expected yields on existing orchards and the need to maintain the balance between supply and demand to protect grower returns.
The median price of SunGold Kiwifruit license reached $801,000 per hectare up from $550,000 last year but the minimum price dropped down from $525,000 per hectre in 2021 to $451,950 this year.
Meanwhile 350 hectares of RubyRed kiwifruit licenses were also released - the median price was $147,000 per hectare up from almost $75,000 last year.
The minimum price dropped from $58,000 in 2021 to $44,217 a hectare this year.
Both Zespri SunGold and RubyRed Kiwifruit license pools were undersubscribed, with 324ha of SunGold and 280ha of RubyRed Kiwifruit license allocated in 2022.
The company said it was going to review the licensing process.
"Balancing supply and demand remains critical to growing the value we are able to bring back from the market for our fruit, and this will remain Zespri's focus as we undertake a review of the license release programme, including consulting with growers over the coming months with workshops with growers underway already," Zespri says in an update to growers.
"We want to develop a process that's fit for purpose, helps us grow market demand ahead of supply, and that addresses the feedback from growers around the challenges of accessing license to ensure equal opportunity for all growers."
2 comments
Too Many?????
Posted on 06-05-2022 06:58 | By Thats Nice
From what I've witnessed over the last 3 months there's already too many farms being ripped to pieces, plastic, poles and wires going up with kiwifruit absolutely galore in the Bay. Certainly do hope the demand for the fruit remands???
Zespri...
Posted on 06-05-2022 12:44 | By morepork
...has made some bad mistakes in its history (like failing to trade mark the "kiwi fruit" name...), but it has also coordinated and funded research into new varieties and sought to develop new markets around the world. Unfortunately, the choice of partners has not always been wise and we saw Chinese growers rip off all the hard work, with lip service from the Chinese Government, who did nothing to prevent it. OUR growers are subject to licence, but Chinese growers, in practice, are not. (They are theoretically, but it is never enforced.) Zespri needs to find better ways to protect their intellectual property and to protect the NZ growers from being ripped off by foreign opportunists. A foreign national can come over here, collect seedlings of new varieties and take them "home" with impunity. There needs to be much better security at the orchards and the borders.
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