The US Department of Agriculture recently released a report on apple production in New Zealand, which estimated that the total production of New Zealand apples in the 2020/22 season will be 553,000 tons, which is 6% lower than the previous high yield of 2019/20 season.
Apple's forecast for the current season takes into account a combination of two headwinds: labor shortages and bad weather. With the closure of international borders since the outbreak, the Labour force in New Zealand's orchards has been decimated, and picking and packaging has slowed as some orchard workers have contracted COVID-19. Growers have limited manpower to concentrate on exporting higher quality and value apples, while some lower value apple parks are not harvested, affecting the overall yield of apples. Another factor was heavy rainfall in hawke's Bay, a major apple-producing area, which delayed the harvest for several weeks, leaving a large number of apples behind. Still, apple production is expected to be up slightly from the previous year, when New Zealand produced 538,000 tons of apples.
In response, our company has developed a production line for cleaning, waxing, grading and packaging apples, which can effectively alleviate the problem of labor shortage and improve fruit production and market competitiveness. If you are interested, please feel free to ask.