A Turners & Growers representative is optimistic about the opening of the Chinese market for U.S.-grown apples, but is unsure whether protocols wil be completed in time for this year's club varieties to take advantage.

While the German-owned company is based in New Zealand, T&G's club varieties like Pacific Rose, Envy and Jazz are also grown in the U.S. Northwest.

"It's very good for our varieties, because they’ve got a strong following in Asia and it’s really an opportunity to follow that through to mainland China, and develop parts of the business we haven’t had the opportunity to do so with," pipfruit executive general manager Darren Drury told www.freshfruitportal.com during Fruit Logistica in Berlin.

"There is something nice about seasonal products that are available in a slot, but our aspiration is to make our offering available 12 months of the year, and the way the market has been structured it’s been difficult to get anywhere close to that."

He said indications showed the Chinese protocol would be fair, and the company would try to export to the market as soon as it's possible.

"But we're right at the tail end of our season in terms of our Envy and Pacific Rose hasn't got long to run either. In Jazz there is an opportunity though, so that's probably the first one we'd see.

"For Envy in particular, there's no way we'd be able to supply all the markets we want to given the current volume we have.

"We have some pretty ambitious planting plans in the next three years so the volume we think will be needed to feed the market and satisfy demand, that's probably five years away for us."

However, the company's prodution of club and commodity apple varieties is kicking off for the New Zealand season, following months of difficult weather conditions.

"It's probably one of the worst growing seasons we’ve had in the last 20-25 years," Drury said.

"We’ve been absolutely devastated by the hail right through New Zealand, not just the apple crops but others too. The industry has lost volume and it will present a lot of challenges for us in terms of operationally packing it and managing the quality.

He said that after the most recent hailstorms, T&G has probably lost 20% of its volume from the Central Otago area.

"And we're the dominant exporter from that region.

"There was also a very big event on Nov. 23 in Nelson. It actually collapsed our hail nets - we had incredible storms that we haven't seen in a long time.

"It's part of the business and you deal with it, but this year we've just had so many big hail events; not just little local events but ones that have gone through entire suburbs and big areas of land."

Despite these challenges, and the overhang of a large Northern Hemisphere crop that's also been complicated by the Russian import ban for certain countries, Drury believed demand still outweighed supply for T&G's varieties.

"We're feeling pretty positive heading into the New Zealand deal, in Asia but also in other key markets."

www.freshfruitportal.com