5 Mar 2014

Apple exporter all smiles

7:51 am on 5 March 2014

A second straight season of favourable apple-growing conditions has put a smile of the face of Turners and Growers.

The fruit and vegetable marketer and exporter will ship 90,000 tonnes of ENZA apples to markets in Asia, Europe, Britain and North America during the next eight months .

Turners and Growers global marketing manager Rosstan Mazey said the weather had played its part, with good-sized, attractive fruit from the key growing regions of Nelson and Hawke's Bay.

But Turners and Growers did not know if this season would be as good as last, he said.

"Last season was a particularly strong season in terms of the overall crop, so that the volume overall was very high (and) the fruit quality for the most part was very good.

"We were fortunate in the fact that when we went to market, the Northern Hemisphere fruit had sold through in pretty good order, so we're going to markets where there wasn't a lot of overhang of apples."

Turners and Growers had upgraded some of its plants and introduced new technology, with a new packhouse packing line facility and some controlled atmosphere rooms at its Whakatu site, just out of Hastings, Mr Mazey said.

"Really, what we're trying to do is just make our packing and cool storing more efficient and also trying to ensure that we deliver an even better quality product ultimately to our consumers."

The apple harvest had started in Hawke's Bay and Nelson for all varieties except Jazz, which would be the last to be picked, he said.