The Country 23/05/25: Jason Te Brake talks to Jamie Mackay

The chief executive of Zespri comments on the strong demand and market returns from Zespri’s largest-ever crop, which has seen the kiwifruit marketer top $5 billion in global sales in the 2024/25 season, exceeding the goal set in 2015 of $4.5 billion by 2025.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you want a good news story, then let's talk
Key we Fruit. Jason to Break is the chief executive
of Zestpree. Sorry for missing you on yesterday's show. Jason,
We've got you today. Where do we start the industry
topping five billion and global sales for the first time ever.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, we've put in probably a decade
of investing heavily and a strong brand in the market
creating demand, and also our growers and our post harvest
through New Zealand have made sure that we focus on
quality and delivering qualities of the market. So five billion
sales is a huge milestone for us to get to,
but it's come down to probably a decade of hard

(00:40):
work and investment to get to that point.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
It's interesting when you say a decade of hard work
and investments. Someone had the wisdom way back in twenty fifteen,
ten years ago to set a goal of four point
five billion by twenty twenty five. Normally these forecasts are
just a bit of a stab in the dark. I
got this one pretty good and you've exceeded it.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah. Obviously, there's a vision about how we would go
through pretty good growth on the back of particularly sun
Gold also resting heavily to make sure we have a
strong brand and good demand in the market for our fruit,
and it's been great. You know, the industry has really
work together to make sure we're able to deliver that.
And also we've been able to see in the market

(01:25):
consumers moving water towards health conscious and natural nutrition diets.
So it's been positive for us.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Why has can we fruit green made a bit of
a comeback because I assumed it would eventually be made
totally redundant by Gold.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
There's still quite a reasonable amount of consumers out there
that want to buy based on the health attributes of
green obviously around the fiber content, and it's good for digestion,
so that you do still get a good consumer base
out there. And we've been able to lift value in
the market just to make sure that we keep ahead

(02:03):
of our costs on orchard and for our supply chain
as well.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I see there's a meaningful premium for organic and if
I'm looking at sun Gold, for instance, your biggest player
final return for the season just being not the season
we're in now eleven dollars eighty one portray for the
sun Gold plane stuff or traditional stuff whatever the terminology is.
But for the organic you're getting fifteen dollars twenty that's

(02:29):
a sizeable premium.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, we've seen good growth in the organic category around
the world at the moment actually, and also good value
on the back of that. Japan's always been a pretty
strong market for US there, but in the recent years
we've seen both the US and also some of our
northern European markets have really picked up. You know, France,
Germany already getting more focus around organic fruit as well.

(02:54):
So we've got a good demand therefore, organic around the
world at the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Zesbury's non New Zealand and supply sales this is the
stuff I'm assuming you're growing in the Northern Hemisphere have
performed very well as well. Twenty six point five million
trays out of what your total production this year was
two hundred and twenty million trays, So that's an excess
of ten percent of your total crop is now grown elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, that's right, and ultimately we think we've been growing
offshore for close to twenty years now we're starting to
see that list and productivity and also with a successful
producer boat last year where the industry supported our view
around growing more fruit offshore. We'll see that continue to
arise in the future as well.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
How are you meeting the demand for Keywi fruit licenses,
because you can't just decide to be a Keywi fruit farmer,
You've got to buy a license to be able to produce.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, so we're looking at how we make sure we
keep demand ahead of supply, So making sure that we
build demand in the market well ahead about what we
can supply, and then we release license both for our
New Zealand grower base with our license release each season,
but also when we're licensing for offshore production, to make
sure that as we build more demand, the supply is

(04:13):
keeping up with that, but not getting ahead of demand
as well.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Okay, this final question on your profitability. Your net profit
was one hundred and fifty five million, down from one
hundred and seventy three million, driven mainly by what you
just talked about before, reduced license revenue from a reduction
and available heck thees and you're dead right, keep demand
ahead of supply. It's economics one oh one.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, that's right. And if you think about the profit
of ES free, we're essentially making profit on and essentially
being able to sell the fruit both from New Zealand
and also offshore, and then the other profit is off
the license release. So where she saw an increase in
our profitability from our fruit supply business because we sold
more fruit at more value and we also really focus

(04:58):
on our cost now heads to try and keep those low.
The other side which was offset was the license We
released less license in that year because we just try
to take a bit of a slowdown while we let
our supply chain invest in future infrastructure. But since then
we've actually started to increase the license release as well.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
So in the dairy industry, we talk about a ten
dollar payout, it will be this year, might even be
a wee bit better than that, and then the prospect
maybe ten dollars in the coming season for the fruit
that's currently coming off now or has come off this season,
it's next season effectively, in terms of returns, what are
you predicting more levels? Will prices stay at these elevated levels.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I mean, that's the aim where we're striving pretty hard
to try and make sure we keep it similar levels.
What we're seeing is a slightly more trickier environment out
there at the moment, particularly through Asia, with a little
bit less confidence in the market, but we've had a
pretty strong start where we're about a core of the
way through our Sung Goold volume already and Ruby Red's

(05:59):
done used with a really good result. So look, you
know it's early days, but we're pretty happy with the
start and also just making sure we work through to
try and get his best return we can for our goals.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Jason to Break, Chief executive of Zestper see you at
field Days.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Great feeling