Product Report - Brian Pepper

Avocados

It has been well documented that the N.Z crop is much smaller than last season and the shortage has allowed very good prices to be achieved for clean lines of fruit. 

Growers who have not harvested their crop yet and are planning to take advantage of our regions ability to hang fruit late will be well rewarded by the very high prices that will be on offer when supply from the northern growing regions declines.

Last Fridays AvoConnect, the Avocado industry Newsletter, advised that two animated videos have been produced that relate to the common principles of pruning and flower pruning for balance.  Both videos are on the avocado industry website under “Orchard Management” >> “Canopy Management” and they aim to introduce the principles associated with pruning in a clear and easy to understand format. 

Principles of pruning video

Flower pruning for balance video

Persimmon

The Persimmon Industry Annual General Meeting will be held in Auckland this year.  The date, (sometime in the second half of February) and the agenda will be confirmed and communicated to you in the near future.

It is an industry requirement that Growers, Packers and Exporters involved in Exporting Persimmons complete supply contacts each year.  We will be in touch in the near future with our Supply Agreements for the 2018 crop. 

In conjunction with the supply contracts we would like to know the size of your crop in 2018.  Knowing this helps us to fine tune sales programmes and order the correct amount of packaging.  To help us make sales plans for the future we will also ask you to estimate your production for the next few years.

The Persimmon Industry Council will be sending all growers a "Growers intent to supply Persimmons for Export - 2018" registration form in the near future.  This will need to be returned to PIC by the 28th February.