Latest / Best of Business / Michael Fox: Zespri Head of Global Public Affairs on kiwifruit exports seeing a 20 percent lift

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Michael Fox: Zespri Head of Global Public Affairs on kiwifruit exports seeing a 20 percent lift · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Fruit exports are the highest I've ever been, hitting three
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  Speaker 2: point one billion dollars for the year to the end
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  Speaker 2: of August. It's an increase of twenty percent, as I
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  Speaker 2: was telling you earlier year on year, and it's driven
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  Speaker 2: by the gold variety. Michael Fox is Zesbery's head of
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  Speaker 2: global public affairs and with us. Michael, Hello, hy here,
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  Speaker 2: how are you very well?
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  Speaker 3: Thank you?
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  Speaker 2: Guys must be absolutely thrilled with us.
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  Speaker 3: We are, and it's really great to see growers have
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  Speaker 3: their tails up. Just the largest ever crop, up about
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  Speaker 3: forty five percent on last year. I'm out sending fruit
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  Speaker 3: quality in the markets performing really well, so it's good
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  Speaker 3: to see grouse for confidence.
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  Speaker 2: Why are people loving the gold at the moment? Or rather,
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  Speaker 2: who is loving the gold?
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  Speaker 3: Well? This We export more than fifty markets around the world,
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  Speaker 3: and gold is certainly a real growth category. But green's
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  Speaker 3: also performing really strongly as well, and also having a
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  Speaker 3: really good season in the market.
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  Speaker 2: Is anybody in particular in the world who's who's into it?
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  Speaker 2: Did just everybody?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: I think I think lots of people and hopefully more
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  Speaker 3: to come, but certainly China is a large market. And
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  Speaker 3: what we do say is is that you know, the
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  Speaker 3: sweener tasting fruit is more suited to the Asian palette
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  Speaker 3: than the Asian countries genuinely do love sun gold but
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  Speaker 3: we also see really strong growth growth and the likes
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  Speaker 3: of the US is a really strong growth market for
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  Speaker 3: US as well as as well as Europe.
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  Speaker 2: And how's the red coming along?
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  Speaker 3: It's coming along well, yes, it's only sort of two
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  Speaker 3: or three years into commercialization and still small volumes, but
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  Speaker 3: it generates a huge amount of excitement and market people
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  Speaker 3: are really excited about that red color and the taste
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  Speaker 3: of it, and they're really confident in that category as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean the thing about it is because I
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  Speaker 2: haven't actually tried a red Michael, so you've got to
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  Speaker 2: tell me about this. The thing that I get excited
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  Speaker 2: about is the color as well. What's the taste like?
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  Speaker 3: It depends on who you ask. I've heard guava, I've
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  Speaker 3: heard berries. I've heard a mix of sun golden berries.
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  Speaker 3: So the beauty is in the beholder a little bit,
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  Speaker 3: but it does taste good. It's different to green and gold,
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  Speaker 3: and it's kind of what we do as we as
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  Speaker 3: we are looking for new varieties to bring new consumers
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  Speaker 3: to the category. But like I said, it's pretty extraordinary
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  Speaker 3: how it excited people get about a red piece of
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  Speaker 3: fruit and it gives us real confidence.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty weird that it tastes like wava Hey, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: like weird in a good way. Weird in a good way.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to be disparaging of the thing. It
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  Speaker 2: sounds awesome, how we Yeah, how are you feeling after
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  Speaker 2: all of the stuff that you guys have been through?
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  Speaker 2: Are you? Are you through it? The stuff with the
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  Speaker 2: bad crops and the mishandling and the mice and all
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  Speaker 2: that stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good point you make. So it has
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  Speaker 3: been a couple of tough years if you go back
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  Speaker 3: to COVID and the labor shortage, and that drove real
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  Speaker 3: significant fruit quality issues, and that took a lot of
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  Speaker 3: value out of the industry. Last year we were down
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  Speaker 3: about twenty percent on where we thought we'd be, and
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  Speaker 3: that was just a range of sort of bad weather events.
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  Speaker 3: But I think, you know, you talk to a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people who have been around the industry, for a
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  Speaker 3: long time, and while it's you know, while it's it's
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  Speaker 3: you know, they're still rebuilding and they're still challenges. You know,
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  Speaker 3: the outloo from Grows is a lot more optimistic than
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  Speaker 3: it's been. And I think this year the spring, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the orchards are looking great, the weather's great. So that's
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  Speaker 3: very early days in Touchwood, but hopefully that confidence continues.
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  Speaker 2: Good stuff, Michael, thank you, appreciate your time, and best
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  Speaker 2: of luck with the season. That's Michael Fox. Who' zizbreezehead
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  Speaker 2: of Global Public Affairs.
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