Over the past month, I have been out and about visiting growers in Central Otago, as well as on my home turf, the Hawke’s Bay. I also spent a couple of days in Auckland last week, visiting the distribution side of our industry.
Most of the Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough growers I’ve spoken with have had a terrific season. While reports out of Central Otago are more varied, the consensus is also very positive albeit that it is still a little too early to be conclusive.
The produce managers I met up with in Auckland were also largely very positive about the season. The fruit I saw in the markets and at the cross-section of retailers I visited looked good and was of high quality. It goes without saying that it’s crucial to keep quality up for the rest of the season.
Summerfruit NZ has been running a targeted, market development campaign across YouTube, Meta and TVNZ on Demand over the past month. The videos are now approaching 1 million views. They feature New Zealanders – who aren’t on holiday for a variety of reasons – enjoying summerfruit and a taste of summer, no matter where they are or the time of day. Check out the campaign here: https://everyone.summerfruitnz.co.nz/
Swapping my Summerfruit NZ hat for a consumer one, I have a story and some reflections to relate… When I was out visiting orchards in Hastings, I enjoyed a Tatura Belle peach straight off the tree. Being honest, I'm still getting my head around all the different varieties, and to be even more honest, before I started, I had not purchased fresh peaches for a while.
What struck me with the Tatura Belle was the lack of fur, its texture and the explosion of flavour. Since this eating experience, golden peaches have become a fixture on our shopping list, and this got me thinking: there’s a lot of education to be done to communicate just how amazing summerfruit can be.
I’m very keen to dig deeper into how consumers perceive the fruit we are supplying. We’ve recently engaged a food and beverage research and marketing specialist to run a quantitative survey of New Zealand consumers. The results from this work will be presented at this year’s conference (25-26 June in Blenheim: https://www.summerfruitnz.co.nz/about-us/events/summerfruit-nz-conference/?date=2025-06-25)
The results will also support a wider conversation about the season, its quality and the opportunities that exist to grow the summerfruit category and industry’s prosperity, if we get the balance right.
While down in Central Otago, I was also impressed by the organisation that goes into coordinating the huge seasonal labour force. Everywhere I went, I saw smiling faces (RSEs, students, backpackers, and permanent workers) and visited accommodation of all shapes and sizes.
What stood out to me was the effort our industry puts in to look after all these workers and the importance of doing so if we are attract them back for another season and maintain our social licence.
With Chinese New Year on 29 January, our Central Otago cherry growers are going flat tack. I wish you all the best as well as all the other summerfruit growers who are working incredibly long hours, to provide consumers in New Zealand and overseas with fantastic fruit, as the season marches swiftly on to an end.
Ongoing Oriental fruit fly response
Since the start of the year, I have been representing Summerfruit NZ on the governance group for the Oriental fruit fly response, being led by Biosecurity NZ.
I am impressed by the swiftness of the response and how comprehensive it is. But then again, millions of dollars in export returns are at risk to say nothing of the inconvenience and cost to growers that an outbreak would cause.