Wet weather has plagued berryfruit growers this season, leading to higher fruit losses through fruit drop and increased incidence of disease, with pre-season estimates down 15-20 %.
John Molyneux, from Berryfruit Export NZ Ltd, has said 3000-3500mT were produced locally for export, and though lower than expected, still contributed to the local economy through a FOB (free on board) value of NZ$5-6 million.
Berryfruit Export NZ Ltd export to the US, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia and the Middle East, supplying soft fruit processors with block frozen, puree and IQF (instant quick frozen) berries for jam, juice, bakery and diary including ice cream and yoghurt. Nutriceutical uses for the fruit is also gaining momentum as Mr Molyneux explains.
"It's basically looking at the health and functional food aspects, you're actually getting additional health benefits over and above the prime requirement of buying food, for example overseas yoghurt with high folic acid content. Boysenberries have a very high anthocyanin content and accordingly we are doing a lot of research to promote that aspect of the fruit."
New Zealand is also acknowledged in the implementation of HACCP.
"Hazard analysis critical control point, is a health and safety issue for industries prone to poisoning and contamination, similar to listeria in seafood. It involves going through your whole plant and processes to determine where potential problems may arise and how they can be prevented and what methods will prevent them before they arise."
"The industry here in terms of getting on board with HACCP is ahead of many other small industries, certainly that's the response from our overseas buyers."
Grower Phillip Field said it was one of the poorest seasons he'd had. "Weather conditions at flowering and at harvest were very difficult and resulted in high levels of fungal diseases in the crop and the fruit wasn't up to standard, that's apart from fruit that wasn't even harvested due to fungal diseases, so pretty poor."
"The season was certainly a challenge," local grower John Gibbs commented. "It was the worst one I can remember, however we were one of the lucky ones and came out with an average crop. Disease was the biggest challenge, the weather never really gave us a chance to catch up."
"Having said that we were only down 15% or so on export, it's not a drama, a lot of it relates to peoples expectation doesn't it."
