New Zealand exporter Zespri plans to hire 70 more staff members over the next 12-18 months as gold kiwifruit volumes look set to soar this coming season, newspaper the New Zealand Herald reported.

Zespri chief operating officer Simon Limmer

Chief operating officer Simon Limmer told the publication gold volumes were set to jump 70% year-on-year to 30 million trays in the next campaign, with that figure in line to double by 2017.

"We have got three years of very steep volume growth, potentially up to 50 to 60 million trays. We were at 30 million trays in 2011 which was the pre-Psa impact and dropped back to 11 million trays in 2012/13 so we are now on the recovery," Limmer told the New Zealand Herald.

"We need to make sure we are handling the gold volumes that are coming through and growers are focused on growing a quality product focused on taste."

Returns however may be a challenge due to the falling value of currencies in two of Zespri's top kiwifruit markets - the European Union and Japan.

"We've got hedging in place for the yen for the next year or two, but obviously the worsening position of the yen to the New Zealand dollar is not helping, so that is of concern to us," Limmer was quoted as saying.

"Similarly we have not seen a lot of upside in the euro and still take a relatively conservative view as to where that might lead.

"However, there is some benefit in the US dollar over the last couple of months, which has started to flow through into our thinking over the next few years."

Related story: Zespri's five-year plan for New Zealand kiwifruit

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