30 Jan 2014

Good apple harvest this season

12:57 pm on 30 January 2014

The apple industry is harvesting some of the largest and tastiest fruit for years.

Pipfruit New Zealand says regions such as Hawke's Bay have had consistently warm summer days resulting in large, firm fruit.

But trade development manager Gary Jones says the harvest is pretty good everywhere and the fruit is a great size.

He said South Africa has had some significant hail storms and South America has had significant frosts events - which make shipments from New Zealand even more attractive.

Mr Jones said 2013 was a record-making season with 550,000 tons of apples harvested and 325,000 of that exported, and 2014 is predicted to be only slightly smaller.