The first of the much-anticipated 2024 Aotearoa New Zealand-grown JAZZ™ apples are this week being picked ready for Kiwis and consumers around the world to enjoy.
This season, T&G Global and its independent growers will collectively pick over 4 million tray carton equivalents (TCEs) of apples this year, including its premium JAZZ™ and Envy™ apple brands.
Craig Betty, Director of Operations for T&G, said the 2023-24 growing season is off to a great start, with a good quality crop on the trees.
“Across the country, we’ve had near-perfect apple growing conditions, with hot sunny days and cool nights, enabling the crop to develop great colour and eating quality,” says Craig.
“Our JAZZ™ apples taste great—with that perfect balance of crisp, tangy-sweet flavour that consumers love and seek out.
“Last year, with Cyclone Gabrielle striking Hawke’s Bay just as our harvest was getting underway, some JAZZ™ volumes were impacted. Our team, together with our independent growers, have put in a huge amount of work to clean up and restore orchards. The quality of this season’s crop is testament to their dedication and effort.”
T&G and its growers began harvesting early season varieties including Poppi™, Royal Gala and Pacific Queen™ in Tairāwhiti Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay in early February, followed by JAZZ™ in March. This will be followed by the South Island JAZZ™ crop, which will be harvested a few weeks later. T&G’s premium Envy™ branded apples will begin to be picked from early April.
The first JAZZ™ shipments will depart Napier Port bound for Asia in late March.
“In addition to JAZZ™ being readily available in stores across Aotearoa New Zealand for Kiwis to enjoy, in late March our first shipments will depart Hawke’s Bay for Hong Kong, and over the coming months JAZZ™ will be available in China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam,” says Craig.
It’s also the first full season that T&G’s state-of-the-art automated Hawke’s Bay packhouse has been operational. As Craig explains “Our Whakatu packhouse helps ensure we have the capacity to handle increasing volumes of fruit and that the quality of our fruit is prioritised by utilising some of the world’s leading AI defect sorting, soft fruit handling, and robotic fruit packers and palletiser technology.
“With best in class systems across our supply chain we ensure our apples arrive in-market in great condition and meet customer and consumer needs.”
