The Country 08/05/25: Karen Morrish talks to Jamie Mackay

The chief executive of NZ Apples and Pears gives us an end-of-season overview. Plus, we look at the impact of Trump’s tariffs. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Karen Morris, chief executive of Apples Insian Apples and Peers
season coming to an end. Is everything off the trees?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Karen just about. Yes, we are quite literally in the
last few days, so it's the end is here now.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's been from what I hear, a good season.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, it has. I mean, as I spoke earlier in
the year, we started well, the conditions were right, and
harvest has been fantastic, so we're pretty pleased with the
end result.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Are you finding a home for all these apples and peers?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yes, certainly the demand is strong. We've got a great
varietal mix that globally is very well liked and yeah,
so it's I mean this year with the quality, the color,
the size, the increased packouts, it's yeah, it's going to
be a very good year.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
What about mister Trump and his tariffs, how's that affecting
horticultural exports?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I think it continues to be a watching It's you know,
you make a prediction and it changes the next day.
But certainly our exports are watching how those ebbs and
flows happen, and you never know. There may be an
upside to some of it, but certainly it's a watching game.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
For sure, So the growers making good dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh, that I'll just say is yet to be determined.
You know, it's still early days in terms of what
those returns look like. We did with this season have
the opportunity to take advantage of an early market, and
I know a lot of our exporters did, so we're
certainly very hopeful for those returns.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
How much of it isn't branding and packaging? And I
say that because I was playing golf with someone I've
forgotten who trouble as your memory fades when you get
a bit longer in the toothcare, but they had one
of those weed plastic cylinders with two little Minnie apples
in it, you know, the wee rocket, So I know
who it was, A rich friend of mine, Graham Smith.
I mean, you'd expect him to buy top shelf. But

(01:59):
I'm thinking that's a hell of a lot of plastic
and packaging for two little apples, which were delicious, by
the way.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh, I think all of our exporters are very conscious
of what the consumer wants, and you know, when you
look at any of them, they're all working towards what
can we do to represent our product in a way
that's acceptable to the consumer and also with that sustainability
and environmental focus too.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Anything else to add, Oh.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I'd just say that the growers out there have had
it hard over the last few years and as you
well know, and we are very much hopeful that this
is going to be a year to reset the balance.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Good are we seeing also on the following on from that?
Are we seeing increased plantings of apples and pears? I know,
for instance, we've got the dairy farm and Canterbury that's
been converted to apples. We know that in certain regions
some of that intensive dairy land is now going to
key we fruit are we seeing. We're seeing much of

(02:58):
the same with apples.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Our hectes are traditionally pretty static. But what we're seeing
is it's the replanting on existing blocks into whether it
be two d or different growing systems, and that's where
we're seeing the definite increases.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Okay, Karen Morrish, thank you very much for your time,
and I do hope those apple growers and the peer growers,
as more apple growers than peer growers, have a good season,
especially those ones on the east coast of the North Island,
because they've got a wee bit of catching up to
do they have.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Thank you very much, Jamie, thanks for.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Some of your time. Glad to be able to get
you on the line. Karen Morrish, Chief executive of NZ
at Apples and Peers