WEEK 27 

Week 7 of the 2019/20 season is behind us and industry weekly tray volumes probably paint a clear picture as to events to date.

As of June 30th the New Zealand market had packed 216,316 trays – the majority of this packing occurring in the last 3 weeks of June, 58,079, 46,873 and 40,961 trays.

Pricing as a result has taken a drop and this is reflected in the returns noted below at coolstore door values. My question to those who have participated in the early packing period is where has your product ended up, what programme was it destined for and what values were expected in return? Now this is hardly a new discussion but the cavalier approach to pricing that we have seen already and the impact on industry value that results needs to be tabled. It is both irresponsible and stupid to allow fruit to enter the market without a home and with no pricing expectation.

Despite my vent above, things are going as per plan at our end; we have another week of promotional activity planned next week and the values involved are in line with expectations.

We have been extremely fortunate that our retail partners have not held us to some of the industry values that they have been quoted – this has emphasised their support for planned and sustainable programmes that offer supply security and equitable grower returns.

With export looming, anticipated packing and likely incoming stock volumes are now dropping back from those levels of past weeks and we foresee potential value lift from around mid-July. This period will again be dependent on an absence of unprogrammed fruit entering the market and or poor marketing practices.

Pricing is for the current sales period. Prices may not always accurately reflect your returns as stock may be held over pending sale or as the market dictates. Where no price is recorded, sales have not been made in the report period. Prices are subject to change based on daily market conditions. Packing/packaging should be deducted from these prices.