3 minute read
The 2021 Persimmon Export Season
Photo: Trefor Ward
It not possible to reflect on persimmon seasons in the current environment, without reference to Covid-19.
By Ian Turk : Persimmon Industry Council product group manager
The 2020 national lockdown happened right before the start of the persimmon industry’s harvest – just as growers were starting to send fruit samples for pre-harvest residue testing. Air freight, which is for the majority of our early season sales, was hit hard by availability and therefore price, but also apparent low priority. Exporters were consistently having consignments at the start of the season bumped from flights. Far from optimal cool chain management for perishable products.
The Persimmon Industry Council (PIC) is focussed on the export sector – but seeing the issues in front of us for the coming season we quickly put a small domestic promotion in place. With independent outlets not open, quite an amount of fruit that was of smaller sizes or lower quality was not sent to market. It was felt that wholesalers and retailers were being quite wary, by not wanting to take on any risk in a difficult market – and not accepting anything other than the best quality produce.
What was the carry over effect into 2021? Market wise, freight uncertainty has continued and again we have seen a higher than normal focus on sea freight where possible.
Australia _______ is our largest market (about 1/3)
With Covid-19 uncertainty overseas we have continued to see importers reluctant to take large volumes – i.e., sea freight container loads, which are significant for the not so mainstream product groups. Exporters have reported that they have had to resort to expensive airfreight options, sending smaller volumes more frequently to keep programmes in markets running through the season. In recent years the domestic market has been strengthening. The result in 2020 saw the PIC increase its investment through 5+ a day, alongside marketers’ own programmes. The 5+ a day programme and the local market continued to grow in 2021. Marketers obviously compare the risk and return profiles for domestic versus export and we continue to see significant quantities of fruit diverted to the local market as persimmons become better known.
Export volumes
2021 1,400 tonnes 2020 1,232 tonnes 2019 1,630 tonnes (10 year record)
The export volume (at 1,400 tonnes) grew back past last year’s level (1,232 tonnes), but still fell short of 2019, when exports reached a ten-year record (1,630 tonnes). The industry has new plantings still coming up to full production and we expect to be on a growth trend in volumes and prices over the next few years. Our markets have been generally stable for some years, although we are seeing good growth coming from Vietnam, where exporters have good local programmes. Our largest market remains Australia which takes about one third of the volume. This is despite losing onshore phytosanitary inspection completely last year, increasing the risk of exports to Australia. We continue to aim for increased exports to our relatively new markets of China and the United States. Both have rigorous Official Assurance Programmes which require everyone in the chain supplying those markets to be committed to the programme. The industry view is however, that a wide range of developed markets is essential to spread market access risk.
At about the time our last shipment for 2021 was arriving in market, New Zealand had its first community case of Covid-19 for six months and the country once again headed into lockdown. For our industry, the timing this time around was as unobstructive as it could be – but perhaps a timely reminder that horticulture exports could continue to be impacted by Covid-19 around the world for some time to come.
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