In a pivotal move by Zespri ®, New Zealand-based kiwifruit growers have seen a dramatic rise in licensing costs as the number of available licensed hectares has been reduced by half.

This year, only 350 hectares of SunGold kiwifruit were licensed, which has driven the per-hectare median licensing costs from $550,000 per hectare to a stunning $801,000 per hectare.

Zespri said the reduction in available hectares is due to higher-than-expected yields on existing orchards and the need to maintain the balance between supply and demand to protect grower returns.

“Balancing supply and demand remains critical to growing the value we are able to bring back from the market for our fruit, and this will remain Zespri's focus as we undertake a review of the licence release programme, including consulting with growers over the coming months with workshops with growers underway already.”

If you are impacted by the licence limit, contact us to see if we can help.