A good amount of summer rainfall has led to one French produce company expecting an outstanding quality for its Oscar branded kiwifruit this year. 

Prim'land managing director Jean-Baptiste Pinel said he was looking forward to the coming season in which the company would harvest some 15,000 metric tons (MT) of kiwifruit.

"We are confident with the next season because we're having a very good production at the moment with excellent quality," Pinel told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"We had a bit of rain all throughout the summer, which was great for the trees because humidity was very high and there was no shortage of water. Generally quality and taste will be very good this season."

Pinel added a lot can happen in the remaining two growing months before the harvest, but so far everything was promising.

Prim'land has kiwifruit production in Chile as well as France, and Pinel said the current state of the market with fruit coming from the South American country was very positive and would likely continue.

"So far the markets are strong, and at the moment we have very good reserves with the sale of the Chilean kiwifruit, and there we have a very good reserve right now in all the markets," he said.

"All in all the market is very good for Oscar kiwifruit, but of course for France it will be another season. The market is quite active now and so I am confident that when we arrive with our French Oscar the market will be the same and generally the situation should be good."

Last year saw Prim'land's first kiwifruit shipment to South Korea, and Pinel said although it was a relatively small amount he was confident the company would be able to ramp up volume this season.

"We only did one container. So this season we hope that we have more opportunity to sell higher volumes but we are confident and looking forward to showing the South Korean consumer the great taste of French Oscar kiwifruit," he said.

While kiwifruit makes up about 90% of Prim'land's business, the company also grows numerous varieties of apples.

Pinel explained that apple quality was shaping up in a similarly positive fashion to the kiwifruit, but the same could not be said for markets.

"With apples the production is good in terms of quality, but regarding the markets, they are a bit more difficult than kiwifruit. There is a lot of supply and generally production will be very high this season," he said.

The World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) has forecast a 9% rise in apple volumes to 11.89 million MT this year, and with Russia closed to big EU apple exporting countries like Poland there will likely be oversupply issues on the old continent.

"With Russia being closed the situation could be quite complicated," Pinel said.

He explained Prim'land's relatively small apple production meant it didn't export its apples to far away countries like India, and so could not increase shipments easily to avoid the EU, but the low quantities also meant the company wouldn't be as badly affected as others.

"It may be difficult but because we are a smaller player in apples are we are mainly operating locally," Pinel said.

"We shouldn't have a lot of difficulty because our size isn't big enough. So we shouldn't be too affected by Poland in the markets we are dealing with right now."

Photo: Prim'land

www.freshfruitportal.com