From The Chair

As I mark my first year as your Chair, I want to start by saying thank you. Representing New Zealand’s citrus growers has been a new experience and a steep learning curve at times, and two things stand out for me.

I’ve really valued the opportunity to put the reality facing growers, and the market, directly in front of people. From outside the industry, the response has often been ‘how can that be?’. From within it, the response has been ‘thank you for getting the message out’,  and that has meant a great deal.

It has taken someone from outside the sector to help give you that voice, which I do find a little concerning – although it isn’t unique to citrus, and is probably true of most domestic food producers. I’d like to think that, together, we can change that over time, so that hard conversations can be had openly and constructively, and issues worked through to the benefit of the whole industry.

I thoroughly enjoyed last week’s Forum, and the topics sparked plenty of discussion and, I hope, some thinking and reflection on how the industry operates and what might need to change. As an outsider, these were the messages I took home: the retail sector is changing rapidly overseas, and that change will arrive here, we are unlikely to see protection from imported fruit, and the cost of doing business in New Zealand will remain higher than for some of our competitors.

Our advantages are great-tasting fruit and provenance, both of which are valued in our domestic and export markets. New Zealand producers are innovative, and can and do adapt quickly. We also saw clear evidence of how much damage can be done to market perception if we let our standards slip.

It’s easy to focus on the challenges, but there are short-term, grower-led opportunities that could start to tackle some of them. The Board has backed a proposal to explore a quality market brand – one that clearly signals to consumers which is our top fruit and makes it easy for them to choose it. We need to be organised and plan our supply to market to reduce the likelihood of imported product clashing with domestic supply. From there, we can look at further product options and selections to build some diversity.

The single biggest change needed is for the industry to come together and work as one. That doesn’t mean a single-desk sales approach; it means supporting a quality New Zealand product with a quality mark, and managing supply in a way that benefits all marketers and growers alike – competition within a unified industry strategy. Food for thought!

Lastly, I’d like to thank Jo for an amazing job pulling the Forum together. All the feedback I’ve seen has been very complimentary, as have been the topics and running order that took us all on a journey that exposed the issues and created some options.

All the best for spring and while you’re getting on with the jobs, do ruminate on these ideas and engage with your Board to help get the most out of your industry.

Hugh Ritchie

Forum Wrap-Up

Profitable Citrus: Backing Growth in a Changing Landscape

Growers, packhouses, exporters and retailers gathered at The Vines on 17 September to follow the fruit from orchard to shelf and ask where citrus is heading over the next 25 years. Our sincere thanks to the speakers and panellists who so generously shared their thinking. Summaries of our keynote speakers are below.

The Growth Case for Citrus: Professor Hamish Gow

Professor Hamish Gow, Sir Graeme Harrison Chair in Global Value Chains & Trade, Lincoln University

Hamish opened the Forum with a candid look at what it takes to build an investable, high-growth horticultural sector, and whether an orange is ever just an orange.

He showed how food markets are polarising: global and local, premium and low-price, craft and commodity, with today’s ‘hybrid consumer’ moving between them depending on the occasion. High-end retail and hard discounting now sit side by side, and the middle of the market is the place to beware.

His central message was to choose a value discipline and pursue it relentlessly:

  • Operational excellence: the lowest cost (e.g.Talley’s)
  • Product leadership: the best product (e.g Zespri)
  • Customer intimacy: the best solution for a specific customer (e.g.Rockit)

Trying to deliver all three at once leads to what he called the ‘black hole of mediocrity’. He also flagged that consistent quality assurance remains an issue for fresh produce.

Hamish’s takeaways: choose a value discipline; pursue it singularly, but don’t forget the rest; design your value chain around it; choose your value chain partners; incentivise and align them appropriately; and don’t get stuck in the black hole.

Watch Hamish’s presentation here

What Will Be on the Plate in 2050, and Is Citrus Ready?

Dr Victoria Hatton – CEO, FoodHQ

Victoria took us on a ‘foresight walk’ to 2050, reminding us that the orchard is the one place where 2050 is a decision made today: a tree planted in 2027 will still be cropping in 2050.

She set out the squeeze facing New Zealand citrus. Around 90% of our citrus is sold at home, and in 2025/26 imports matched domestic supply for the first time. With no tariff on imported citrus, growers can’t out-price imported fruit in their own supermarket. The answer is to be different, and prove it.

If citrus is simply a way to deliver vitamin C, fibre or flavour, it loses to the pill and the vat. What can’t be copied is the whole fruit: its natural matrix, the eating experience, its role as a companion to modern diets and medicine, and provable naturalness.

Victoria identified four things the industry has not yet built. None of them are agronomy; all of them are decisions:

  • An owned variety
  • A category brand that buyers ask for by name
  • A proof layer: origin you can test in the fruit, not just claim on a label
  • The will to work back from 2050

She also highlighted value in the half of the fruit we currently throw away (pectin, bioflavonoids, pet nutrition), and the question of who will own the varieties and genetics of the future.

Watch Victoria’s presentation here

Panel Highlights

The below presentations will be available to watch via our website next week. If you missed the day, these were the key messages our speakers left us with:

Decoding the Chain

A grower, a packhouse and an exporter followed the fruit from orchard to payment, and one message came through clearly: many of the biggest commercial decisions are made long before the fruit is packed. Brad Davies made the case for transparency, so growers can see what’s happening to their fruit early enough to act, from when to pick to whether to pick at all. Barry Wind took us through the decisions made inside the packhouse. Ian Albers showed how talking to First Fresh customers early, turned larger lemons into a 21% lift in sales to Japan, and why New Zealand wins on timing, niche products and our country story, not on scale.

Protecting Access, Protecting Profit

Rob Silberbauer made the business case for biosecurity: a single incursion can mean growers produce less, pay more to produce and lose market access. In Florida, citrus greening pushed the cost of producing processed oranges up 283%. Nathan shared the story of Australia’s 2018 citrus canker response, which began with one plant spotted in a Darwin retail nursery, and the lessons that shaped Australia’s CitrusWatch programme. The shared message: preparedness is an investment, and the best insurance payout is never having to claim.

The Trust Equation

Hugh Ritchie opened with an example from the arable sector. The NZ Grown Grains mark, owned by growers, has signed 40 licences since launching in October 2025. He then asked what a similar quality mark could do for citrus on a supermarket shelf where local and imported fruit can be hard to tell apart. Phil Whitehead explained the impact of a poor eating experience: it can delay a shopper’s next purchase by 6 to 14 weeks, and shoppers don’t complain, they simply stop buying. Mark’s Loeffen’s data showed that higher BrimA means better taste and more repeat purchases. Simon Beck added the exporter’s view: move citrus from something bought on price to something chosen for a reason.

Innovation Spotlight & Trial Block

Attendees heard an update on the sector ground-truthing project, which is mapping the citrus industry’s footprint on the Landkind platform for the first time. Around 290 orchards have been located. The session outlined how knowing exactly where orchards are and what is planted will support faster biosecurity responses and omproved industry planning. Work is underway to complete this mapping before the end of the year.

AgroFresh and Delytics then presented the results of this season’s Rubens trial. The Rubens is a handheld, non-destructive device that estimates fruit maturity without cutting the fruit open, and it could one day offer a faster, lower-cost alternative to laboratory testing. The trial compared Rubens readings with laboratory clearance results for navel oranges throughout the season.

AGM & Industry Awards

Annual General Meeting

Thank you to all members who attended the Citrus NZ Annual General Meeting on 17 September, held alongside our Industry Forum and Awards Dinner. All motions were passed, and the financial statements and annual report were received.

We were also pleased to welcome Bruce Jefferd to the Board, following Jason Galloway’s retirement. We thank Jason for his contribution and service to the Board and the wider citrus industry, and we look forward to the perspective Bruce brings as we continue the work set out at this year’s Forum.

Congratulations to our 2026 Award Recipients

The evening at The Vines was a chance to celebrate the people who make this industry what it is. Congratulations to our 2026 award recipients:

Emerging Leader: Alice Campbell, Nga Puawai Orchard

Alice started as an orchard hand on a winter harvest just three years ago. She now leads and coaches seasonal teams, is progressing through her horticulture apprenticeship, and has made packhouse improvements that have reduced the per-crate cost for growers. In a region better known for kiwifruit, she has deliberately chosen citrus and become a real advocate for it.

Citrus Innovation Award: Matt Carter, Hill Road Orchard

Matt and his wife Cath restored a neglected Ormond orchard by hand. He became one of New Zealand’s first finger lime growers, and Hill Road products have won multiple Outstanding NZ Food Producer awards. Through his role at First Fresh, he has championed a pipeline of new varieties and brought ideas like trellised citrus into the New Zealand conversation.

Excellence in Orchard Sustainability & Practice: Juan Ferrere, Ferrere Management 

Over 30 years, Juan has shown that stewardship and profit belong together. His work spans biological management and soil health, root pruning as a crop-management tool, helping bring Afourer budwood into New Zealand, and bringing the cyclone-damaged Amber Grove orchard back to full production.

Industry Champion: Alan Thompson, Kainui Pack & Cool

For more than four decades, in partnership with his wife Helen, Alan has been a pioneer of large-scale citrus in New Zealand. He commercialised the Yen Ben lemon and built the Yen Ben export programme to Japan, which growers in Northland and Gisborne still benefit from today.

Thank You To Our Sponsors

Events like these are only possible with the generous support of our sponsors. Thank you to all our sponsors for supporting this event and bringing our citrus community together:

Principal: K-Fruit Kaiaponi

Platinum: First Fresh, Horticentre Trust, NZ Fruitgrowers Charitable Trust, Ray White Gisborne, Seeka

Premium: JRP Citrus, MG Group, T&G Fresh, Zeafruit

Partners: Fresh Direct, H1 Packhouse, Viscount

Industry Support

Get on the Map with Landkind

Good news- through Landkind, we’ve now pinpointed around 290 citrus orchards across the country. The next step is adding variety detail to the blocks where it’s still incomplete.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll email affected growers their orchard map. Simply mark the varieties on each block and return it to . It should only take a few minutes to complete.

Our aim is to have every orchard fully mapped by early December. Early next year, we’ll share an industry-wide summary of varieties and total hectares, giving growers, packhouses and the wider sector a clear overview of New Zealand’s citrus landscape.

View the demo here

In Brief

Sprayer Optimisation Workshops: Gisborne, October/November

Through our Focus Orchard Network Programme, and in collaboration with A Lighter Touch and the Persimmon Industry Council, Citrus NZ is hosting two to three hands-on sprayer optimisation sessions for citrus and persimmon growers  covering nozzle choice, calibration and in-orchard coverage checks, with the option of a full sprayer WOF on your own machine. Led by David Manktelow with Andrew Mawley and Andrew Blakeman, the sessions run from late October through November (dates and venue confirmed mid-October). Places are limited – email to register by 12 October. For more information read here

Rubens Navel Orange Evaluation

As part of our work testing new technologies on behalf of the sector, this season Citrus NZ trialled the AgroFresh Rubens handheld non-destructive device – an alternative tool to destructive acid/Brix testing, with Delytics independently benchmarking it against laboratory results. Further development is needed before the tool could support clearance decisions. Read the full report for the detail here.

Commerce Commission Grower Survey: Closes 29 September

The Commission is seeking growers’ views on the proposed J&P Turner / T&G Fresh acquisition. Please take some time to complete the survey here -it takes about 10 minutes  and closes end of day  on Tuesday 29 September.

Citrus NZ 2026 Election Priorities

Our five priorities for the citrus sector support the HortNZ Election Manifesto 2026; biosecurity and crop protection, fairer market access for smaller sectors, cutting red tape & regulatory burden, fairer grocery markets and infrastructure. Read our election priorities here

Technical Update: Spring Citrus Nutrition

A quick reminder this month – with new growth and flowering underway, don’t forget to check your nutrition programme is set up to support flowering, fruit set and crop performance, and to time applications for best value while prices stay high.

Spring has arrived, even if the weather can’t quite decide. This week Gisborne went from temperatures above 20°C to snow on the hills and a frost warning in the space of a few days. In orchards, new growth is unfurling and flower buds are developing across most citrus varieties.

This is a critical time to make sure your nutrition programme is ready to support healthy growth, flowering and crop performance.

Ground-applied fertiliser
Time your ground-applied fertiliser to coincide with rising soil temperatures, adequate soil moisture and active tree growth. This helps maximise nutrient uptake and gets the most value from each application, which matters while fertiliser prices remain high. Talk to your adviser about matching nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) inputs to expected crop load and tree growth.

Winter-harvested crops: a spring application before flowering helps ensure trees have enough nutrition for flowering and fruit set. As a general guide, apply about two-thirds of the annual nitrogen requirement in spring. Apply the remaining third later in the season, once crop load and vegetative growth can be assessed. Where time and conditions allow, smaller and more frequent applications may also be beneficial.

Summer-harvested crops (Late Navel, Valencia, Encore, Afourer and Star Ruby): delay the main ground-fertiliser application, about two-thirds of the annual requirement, until after harvest. Excess nitrogen before harvest can promote earlier regreening, reduce juice quality and contribute to coarse rinds. To support flowering, fruit set and fruit size, a very light dressing of a product such as calcium ammonium nitrate or calcium nitrate may be appropriate, provided it supplies no more than 25% of the total seasonal nitrogen requirement.

Foliar nutrition
The same principle applies to foliar nutrition. Winter-harvested crops (Navel, Satsuma, grapefruit and lemons) can receive nitrogen-based foliar applications, while summer-harvested crops should receive products with a lower nitrogen component.

Base foliar applications on leaf-test results and the established requirements for your growing area. Calcium should remain a key part of the programme, because it is important for fruit size and quality. It can be applied as a baseline treatment using calcium nitrate or, for example, as liquid calcium added to a magnesium programme. Include it regularly where crop requirements and conditions justify it.

More information
Further guidance is available in the nutrition section of the Growing Citrus in New Zealand guide. Your local rural merchant or adviser can also recommend suitable programmes and products.