YOUR INDUSTRY
Persimmon update By Ian Turk : Persimmon Industry Council Manager
As for all industries I am sure, 2020 has been a challenging season as we deal with the impacts of the lockdown and its effects on international trade. Our export season started early under the Level 1 lockdown — in fact, the last day under Level 3, I was rushing to get together and into the postal system, our kits for collecting samples for residue testing. All our growers must have a residue test before they are eligible for export. Being an essential industry, along with our suppliers, meant that we were able to have all our systems in place and actioned, but there were certainly some nerves around moving perishable product through the distribution chain. Covid-19 certainly did pose a number of issues for us. About 20% of our exports are sent by air, and particularly during the early season. So the Covid-19 response meant that just a few weeks out from season start, we effectively lost most of our early channels to our markets, and the capacity that remained was priced four times higher than last year. Our airfreight and seafreight streams are quite different product and are managed differently. Seafreight persimmons are sealed in modified atmosphere bags and stored at 0 degrees Celsius — while airfreight is sent at ambient temperatures. While some consignments were able to be sent by air, this season we started bagging and storing persimmons very early on and there was much last minute reorganising. The start of our season also occurred during the period when independent fruit merchants were closed. This definitely impacted local sales, and some growers did not send smaller sizes to market. Our industry focus is 44
The ORCHARDIST : AUGUST 2020
on exporting (around 80% of the crop), however concern for our export markets did this year result in the Council working with 5+ A Day to increase our local promotions. At short notice 5+ A Day prepared some brilliant and vibrant material, with novel recipes or serving suggestions. The programme showcased the versatility, health benefits and convenience of persimmons. Radio advertising was used to create buzz around the new season of persimmons to combine with a social media influencer campaign. Results indicate that the promotions were very successful, reaching over 1.6 million Kiwis, and anecdotal evidence suggests a strong domestic market in 2020.
Radio advertising was used to create buzz around the new season of persimmons to combine with a social media influencer campaign As we approach the end of our season, the impression is that our markets were surprisingly responsive to New Zealand fruit so long as our exporters could get it there. Our volume will be somewhat down on last year, which was one of our largest in recent years. In summary, a remarkably normal season looking at the industry level statistics, but what these do not show is the variable impact on individual growers, and the incredible amount of work which growers, packhouses, and exporters had to put in to achieve that ‘normal’ result.
