April 13, 2025 • 7 mins
We look at the very healthy state of the kiwifruit industry with the managing director of Origin Capital Partners - a large-scale corporate grower.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you've heard about the prospects for red meat from
Tom Young out of AFCO. Let's look at Kiwi fruit.
It's huge this year. It's having a boomer of a season.
Dominic Jones is the managing director of Origin Capital Partners
Large Scale Growers. Can I call you corporates? Dom or
is that a naughty word?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good Jamie? Thanks having me on. You can call us
whatever you like.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, I'll just call you a large scale grower. Talk
to me about the season. Let's start with this question.
How far through the harvest is the keyw fruit industry
at the moment.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The read is one hundred percent done, the gold is
halfway through, and the green is about a quarter of
the way through. So the industry as a total would
be about forty to the center its harvest.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So what part of the country goes first? And I
asked to say, for instance, does the Gisbane region harvest
before bayer plenty.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yes, you tend to red will be earliest, and then
you tend to get either the far north of New
Zealand Kerry Carey or down in Gisbon being first. And
then the bar plenty comes online and so the gold,
the gold harvest has been going since the first or
second week of March. That'll run all the way through
(01:16):
to about early middle of May, whereas the green just
started a week or two ago and that'll run through
to early mid June.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, let's hope Simon Clement read the weather around the
Easter period doesn't upset the apple cart is a clever
play on words for you. Let's talk about Kiwi fruit.
Read is this the next big thing or is it
always just going to be a niche product.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I suspect it will be a niche product. It's really
early days. So this year the industry will do about
two hundred and five million trades with Kiwi fruit, and
reads about three of that, so read really early stage.
It'll be a part of the part of the offering.
But for the full fair future, sun Gold will certainly
(02:01):
be the largest contributor, followed by Green this year. Out
of the two hundred million odd trays one hundred and
thirty to one hundred and forty Big Gold, about sixty
million will be Green and then a little bit of
red in some organics, as can.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
We forrit Green making a bit of a comeback because
I thought a couple of years ago it was going
to be totally outmoded by the gold or is it
just the fact that there aren't enough gold licenses out
there for everyone to convert.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Look, there's a few things happening, I guess, like most
of the primary sector costs went up a hell of
a lot, and so for green, which is a lower
yielding in lower paying for it variety, the margin's got
squeezed a lot quicker. That came at the same time.
It's just some pretty horrible growing conditions across twenty twenty two,
twenty twenty three, and so all growers got hit pretty
(02:51):
hard by that, but in particular green where it's lower margin.
But green green had a very good year last year.
This year is looking pretty good as well. And over
time you tend to see the total green supply decrease,
and that's growers slowly converting those orchards to gold, and
so that has a positive effect on pricing in the market. Obviously,
(03:13):
less fruit to sell, the more you get paid for it.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I know, this is quite a big premium on for
organic product green and gold. Is it worth going organic?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That very much depends on the grower and the orchard.
You obviously have a lot less tools than you torlkit,
So the yields tend to be lower, but you do
get paid more for that fruit. In aggregate, the OGRs
per hectora are lower on organic than they are conventional.
(03:48):
But that's not to say that there's not organic growers
making very good money as well.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Are we going to see expansion in the Kiwi fruit industry?
And I know that Zespri controls it with an iron fist,
is good in terms of the volume and the licenses
they hand out. But the government's talking about doubling exports
in the next decade. I suggest to you doubling the
hectarage or acreage of Kiwi fruits probably an easier cell
(04:15):
than doubling the dairy industry.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, look big big picture of the agricultural exports, Kiwi
fruit is fourth behind dairy, sheep and beef and forestry.
I suspect that Kiwi fruit probably has the most exciting
growth growth prospects out of those four. The industry is
continuing to grow. That that's largely a function of license
(04:42):
release across sun Gold, and that growth is good for
our industry and it's also good for the communities that
we're in our country kivy fruit is very high intensity
use of land, so a sun gold orchard will yield
between sixty and seventy tons of free fruit. The admissions
per kilogram of food produced are much lower than say
(05:06):
sheep and beef or dairy and ky fruits are high
because of the high contensity land use is a very
high employer, so tech tac tech in terms of what
New Zealand's trying to achieve with regard to growing export earnings,
improving national productivity and lowering emissions. So I'd like to
(05:27):
think that there's gross in the end. If the gross
depends on the markets, and it appears as if demand
is continuing to increase for qu fruit around the world.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Will that growth for Zesbury be in New Zealand or
will it be in the Northern Hemisphere?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
But if both zes Presice got an approval late last
year to expand its offshore supply of kivy fruit, so
that that's going to increase by about four hundred hectares
a year for the next seven or so years, I think,
and and Desprief also indicated that it's going to release
(06:06):
approximately four hundred hect years a year of su gold
license for the foreseeable future as well, so gross in
both hemispheres.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
To answer your question, at the height of the COVID
property frenzy, we were seeing kiw we fruit auctions going
for two million dollars per canopy. Heck, there is that
happening again.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
No, and that was that was slightly artificial you similar
to many a set classes, really no interest rates and
just a frenzy of buying. So values have certainly come
back from that level, but I'd argue they were never
really at that level other than for a handful of sales.
(06:48):
What we've seen is prices come down from that from
that level, but over the last twelve months or so
the normalized and I suspect they're probably going to start
to increase, and that's a function of interest rates coming down.
With twenty twenty two and twenty three were quite tough
growing seasons, but last year and this year are very
(07:10):
good ones, and we have a ready supply of labor. Obviously,
in the COVID days, the borders were shut, and our
industry is heavily reliant on offshore labor because of the
seasonal nature of the work, and so with borders open,
we're back to a more normal playing field.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Good on your dominic Jones from Origin Capital Partners key
we fruit. It's an absolute superfood. It must have a
wonderful future. Thanks for your time, pleasure.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Thanks Jamm
So you've heard about the prospects for red meat from
Tom Young out of AFCO. Let's look at Kiwi fruit.
It's huge this year. It's having a boomer of a season.
Dominic Jones is the managing director of Origin Capital Partners
Large Scale Growers. Can I call you corporates? Dom or
is that a naughty word?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good Jamie? Thanks having me on. You can call us
whatever you like.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, I'll just call you a large scale grower. Talk
to me about the season. Let's start with this question.
How far through the harvest is the keyw fruit industry
at the moment.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The read is one hundred percent done, the gold is
halfway through, and the green is about a quarter of
the way through. So the industry as a total would
be about forty to the center its harvest.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So what part of the country goes first? And I
asked to say, for instance, does the Gisbane region harvest
before bayer plenty.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yes, you tend to red will be earliest, and then
you tend to get either the far north of New
Zealand Kerry Carey or down in Gisbon being first. And
then the bar plenty comes online and so the gold,
the gold harvest has been going since the first or
second week of March. That'll run all the way through
(01:16):
to about early middle of May, whereas the green just
started a week or two ago and that'll run through
to early mid June.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, let's hope Simon Clement read the weather around the
Easter period doesn't upset the apple cart is a clever
play on words for you. Let's talk about Kiwi fruit.
Read is this the next big thing or is it
always just going to be a niche product.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I suspect it will be a niche product. It's really
early days. So this year the industry will do about
two hundred and five million trades with Kiwi fruit, and
reads about three of that, so read really early stage.
It'll be a part of the part of the offering.
But for the full fair future, sun Gold will certainly
(02:01):
be the largest contributor, followed by Green this year. Out
of the two hundred million odd trays one hundred and
thirty to one hundred and forty Big Gold, about sixty
million will be Green and then a little bit of
red in some organics, as can.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
We forrit Green making a bit of a comeback because
I thought a couple of years ago it was going
to be totally outmoded by the gold or is it
just the fact that there aren't enough gold licenses out
there for everyone to convert.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Look, there's a few things happening, I guess, like most
of the primary sector costs went up a hell of
a lot, and so for green, which is a lower
yielding in lower paying for it variety, the margin's got
squeezed a lot quicker. That came at the same time.
It's just some pretty horrible growing conditions across twenty twenty two,
twenty twenty three, and so all growers got hit pretty
(02:51):
hard by that, but in particular green where it's lower margin.
But green green had a very good year last year.
This year is looking pretty good as well. And over
time you tend to see the total green supply decrease,
and that's growers slowly converting those orchards to gold, and
so that has a positive effect on pricing in the market. Obviously,
(03:13):
less fruit to sell, the more you get paid for it.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I know, this is quite a big premium on for
organic product green and gold. Is it worth going organic?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That very much depends on the grower and the orchard.
You obviously have a lot less tools than you torlkit,
So the yields tend to be lower, but you do
get paid more for that fruit. In aggregate, the OGRs
per hectora are lower on organic than they are conventional.
(03:48):
But that's not to say that there's not organic growers
making very good money as well.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Are we going to see expansion in the Kiwi fruit industry?
And I know that Zespri controls it with an iron fist,
is good in terms of the volume and the licenses
they hand out. But the government's talking about doubling exports
in the next decade. I suggest to you doubling the
hectarage or acreage of Kiwi fruits probably an easier cell
(04:15):
than doubling the dairy industry.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, look big big picture of the agricultural exports, Kiwi
fruit is fourth behind dairy, sheep and beef and forestry.
I suspect that Kiwi fruit probably has the most exciting
growth growth prospects out of those four. The industry is
continuing to grow. That that's largely a function of license
(04:42):
release across sun Gold, and that growth is good for
our industry and it's also good for the communities that
we're in our country kivy fruit is very high intensity
use of land, so a sun gold orchard will yield
between sixty and seventy tons of free fruit. The admissions
per kilogram of food produced are much lower than say
(05:06):
sheep and beef or dairy and ky fruits are high
because of the high contensity land use is a very
high employer, so tech tac tech in terms of what
New Zealand's trying to achieve with regard to growing export earnings,
improving national productivity and lowering emissions. So I'd like to
(05:27):
think that there's gross in the end. If the gross
depends on the markets, and it appears as if demand
is continuing to increase for qu fruit around the world.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Will that growth for Zesbury be in New Zealand or
will it be in the Northern Hemisphere?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
But if both zes Presice got an approval late last
year to expand its offshore supply of kivy fruit, so
that that's going to increase by about four hundred hectares
a year for the next seven or so years, I think,
and and Desprief also indicated that it's going to release
(06:06):
approximately four hundred hect years a year of su gold
license for the foreseeable future as well, so gross in
both hemispheres.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
To answer your question, at the height of the COVID
property frenzy, we were seeing kiw we fruit auctions going
for two million dollars per canopy. Heck, there is that
happening again.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
No, and that was that was slightly artificial you similar
to many a set classes, really no interest rates and
just a frenzy of buying. So values have certainly come
back from that level, but I'd argue they were never
really at that level other than for a handful of sales.
(06:48):
What we've seen is prices come down from that from
that level, but over the last twelve months or so
the normalized and I suspect they're probably going to start
to increase, and that's a function of interest rates coming down.
With twenty twenty two and twenty three were quite tough
growing seasons, but last year and this year are very
(07:10):
good ones, and we have a ready supply of labor. Obviously,
in the COVID days, the borders were shut, and our
industry is heavily reliant on offshore labor because of the
seasonal nature of the work, and so with borders open,
we're back to a more normal playing field.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Good on your dominic Jones from Origin Capital Partners key
we fruit. It's an absolute superfood. It must have a
wonderful future. Thanks for your time, pleasure.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Thanks Jamm
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