The New Zealand and Chinese authorities, with the assistance of the New Zealand apple industry, reached an agreement at the end of February 2014 allowing the resumption of New Zealand apple exports to China. "At this stage it is too early to estimate the volumes that will be exported to China this year; however we expect that given that our export season was already underway by the time that the agreement was reached, volumes will most likely be down this year," explains Alan Pollard, CEO Pipfruit New Zealand.
Last year NZ exported 9.7m kgs of apples to China.
A voluntary stop was made to exports to China at the end of last season when rot was discovered in a several batches at the Chinese border. The 'post-harvest' rot was caused by the fungus Neofabraea alba and did not pose any food safety risk but officials had identified the fungus as a pest for plant health reasons.
One industry source said that the there were tough new protocols in place, "We already have our export programs in place and have largely missed the boat this year. Everyone is doing their best to make it work."
The largest varieties exported to China are Royal Gala, Pacific Rose TM and Pacific Queen TM. Most Braeburn, Cox, Jazz and Pink Lady TM are exported to the EU, UK and USA. Asia takes almost 90% of the Pacific TM series exports. Almost 40% of Royal Gala is destined for Asia.
"We expect Asia to account for an increasing share of our export portfolio in the future, and China is an important part of that equation," states Pollard.
"We anticipate exporting approximately 303m kgs of apples this year, a reduction on the 320m kgs exported last year," explains Pollard. "Last year was a very high production year for us it is not unusual to experience a reduction in the following year. However, we anticipate that this reduction will not be as great as we have experienced previously."
Royal Gala remains New Zealand's biggest export variety at about 33% of the crop estimate. Braeburn is estimated to be 20% of the export crop, Jazz 11% and Fuji 9%.
In the 2013 season, Asia accounted for 32.1% of total apple exports from NZ (103m kgs) the European Union 27.1% (87.5m kgs); The Americas 15.0% (46.5m kgs); the UK 13.4% (46.5m kgs); and the Middle East 6.3% (20.4m kgs).
In 2014 Pollard expects to see Asia continue to be New Zealand's largest export destination.
