Overview
Summerfruit NZ is the recognised product group for summerfruit under the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority (HEA). Summerfruit has been subject to export licensing under the HEA Act since 1987.
The New Zealand summerfruit industry is small in relation to the scale of worldwide production but is highly regarded for quality in the market. The registration of a strong export marketing strategy with HEA ensures a well-coordinated export marketing discipline resulting in generally high returns.
To view the list of HEA licenced summerfruit exporters for the current season, please click here.
Our export industry is largely based around cherries and apricots. Only small volumes of peaches, nectarines and plums are now shipped, mostly to the Pacific and the USA, although there has been recent interest from Singapore for peaches.
The value of summerfruit exports averages above $80m, up from just under $29m in 2012-13. This is largely based on the increasing value of cherries which has risen in value reaching a high of $83m in the 2022-23 season.