Green growers per tray returns are up on average by 21 per cent according to Zespri's annual results announcement today.

Zespri has today announced its highest-ever average returns per hectare for green growers of $37,959 per hectare from the 2012/2013 season.

Returns are up for green kiwifruit growers.

The returns are welcome news in the face of the current difficult growing season and Psa, says Green Growers chairman Mike Smith.

'This is of course an average result with some growers receiving more and some less, but it is good news. Some of the improvements in returns has come from competition for crop among post-harvest operators which has driven down packing costs.”

It is pleasing that Zespri has lifted its focus on marketing green fruit, moving some of it away from the depressed European market to higher paying markets. However, the strength of the New Zealand dollar is still affecting grower returns, he says.

Around 50 per cent of green growers, including Mike, are now also growing a new variety.

'The yields of new varieties at up to 15,000 trays a hectare compared to 8000 for green make it hard not to change. However, green kiwifruit has a lot going for it including its health benefits, colour and there's nothing be beat a high tasting green fruit.”

Zespri chairman Peter McBride says the record green OGR results are a consequence of a strong focus by Zespri on lifting green profitability in recent years, combined with improving performance both at orchard and post-harvest levels. The green category accounts for around 70 percent of Zespri's exported volume.

'This has been a team effort and is particularly pleasing in the context of deteriorating foreign exchange rates in Zespri's key markets,” says Peter.

However, the record results across the industry come as the impact of Psa on individual orchards continues to be felt.

'Strong underlying demand created by over a decade of investment in the Zespri brand has delivered a substantial competitive advantage and premium to New Zealand growers, which – in turn – earned $1.10 billion in export earnings for the New Zealand economy.

'Delivering the highest Green per-tray OGR for 10 years is particularly impressive, considering the operating environment in 2003 was considerably more favourable than today, in terms of foreign exchange rates and a much smaller volume – 49.9 million trays in 2003/04, as compared to 71.4 million trays last financial year,” says Peter.

Zespri gold returns per hectare for 2012/13 were $101,973, up 12 per cent from the previous year's return of $90,911. Organic green returns per hectare were $34,846, down 2 per cent from $35,527 in 2011/12, while the first year of recorded green14 returns were $18,916 per hectare.

Peter also welcomed an outstanding performance in the China market, with volumes sold up 9 per cent to 10.04 million trays and market returns up 21 per cent compared with 2011/12, to $117.3million, or 11 per cent of Zespri's total market returns.

'It is well known that we have been dealing with some challenging issues in China, including transitioning to a new management team and improving our business practices – but we have been determined to make that transition without disrupting the business.

'This result suggests our management, together with our new import partners, are achieving both our change management and sales objectives.”

Zespri Chief Executive Lain Jager says the high New Zealand dollar continues to cause a significant impact on the business – costing each grower on average 43 cents per tray this financial year, relative to the previous year.

'The cohesion of our integrated industry structure has enabled Zespri's three-year hedging policy, which has delivered a direct benefit to growers of $73.2million in the 2012/13 season.”

Due to seasonal and Psa impacts, the volume of Zespri Kiwifruit sold fell by 5 per cent in 2012/13 to a total volume of 110.1million trays, with New Zealand-grown supply at 101.3million trays and Zespri global supply at 8.8million trays.

Global kiwifruit sales revenue decreased by 4 per cent to $1.56billion from $1.62 billion in 2011/12.

New Zealand-grown fruit and service payments (including the loyalty premium) decreased by 2 per cent from $980.4million in 2011/12 to $959.1million.

'The impact of Psa has significantly impacted on gold volume. Gold sales were down 16 per cent in 2012/13 to 24.6 million trays, from 29.1 million trays the previous year,” says Lain.

'This impact will be even more pronounced in 2013/14, with gold volumes down to around 13million trays for the year. We expect gold volumes will begin to recover after the 2013 season with around 1860 hectares of the Psa-sensitive Hort16A canopy grafted over to the more Psa-tolerant Gold3 in 2012/13, and around 2320 Gold3 hectares in total around the country.

'Growers have taken very determined actions to recover from the impact of Psa by grafting across to Gold3 and other more Psa-tolerant varieties and changing their management practices to cope with the disease.

'While we have some confidence that we are making good progress to recover from the disease, biological systems are complex and we need to get through the coming winter and spring periods in good order and see the new Gold volumes materialise next season, before we can really say the Psa recovery pathway has been a success,” says Lain.

Zespri's net profit after tax for the year was $7.6million, compared to $20.5million in 2011/12. When adjusting for the impacts of funding for Psa, the like-for-like comparison sees profit reduced from $16.4million to $10.7million. These results also include the full provision for the court-imposed penalties and fine in respect to the China Customs investigation.

Zespri's board has announced an intention to declare a final dividend of 1 cent per share to take full-year dividends paid to 5 cents per share.