Kiwifruit marketer Zespri will make an early payout of $35 million to growers hit by tough economic conditions, in response to requests from them.
The opening forecast by Zespri for the new season is lower than had been anticipated.
Zespri says fruit and service payments across all pools are projected to increase to almost $805 million.
However, challenging conditions in the fresh fruit market have affected the green kiwifruit and green organic kiwifruit categories.
Last year, grower payments ranged between just under $7 per tray for green kiwifruit, to up to $9.70 for the gold variety.
Green kiwifruit is predicted to be down by 10 cents a tray on last year and grower services director Carol Ward says the organic category is forecast to be down 46 cents.
However, the gold variety is forecast to increase by almost $2 per tray.
Zespri says while sales volumes are expected to remain steady and fruit and service payments across all pools are projected to increase to almost $805 million, challenging trading conditions in the fresh fruit market have affected the forecast.
Ms Ward says the decision to bring payment forward is designed to help growers with their cash-flow.
She says Zespri has brought forward a portion of the November payment, but additional money will still be paid in November.
Zespri says it tries to pay out the money it receives as quickly as it can to growers.
