Lower production of Greek kiwis has led to higher demand and prices, says Zeus’ Marketing Sales Director Christina Manossis: \u201cThe Greek kiwi production has been reduced due to a mild winter. For the entire country, volumes are expected to be 20 to 25 per cent lower. We\u2019d expect to produce about 300,000 tons of kiwis this year, but now this has been reduced to 240,000 tons. This isn\u2019t just the case for Greece, as Italy also has a lower supply this season. Naturally, demand has increased significantly due to this lower supply, as well as the prices, which are higher than they were last year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With many Greek kiwi exporters selling their stocks fast, Manossis expects most of Greek\u2019s kiwis to be sold out by the end of next month. \u201cFor the current season, Greece has already moved 85,000 tons in 1.5 month. This means people have been selling superfast, as a response to the high demand. If things continue, I expect most of Greece\u2019s stock will be depleted by the end of January. As Zeus, we did not go with the trend of selling our volumes as fast as possible. We value being able to close our season later, and have confidence in the quality of our kiwis to be stored until then. This is why I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll still have kiwis left by the end of January, as we\u2019ll only start to sell aggressively once January starts, while other companies have been doing this from November.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The major shipping lines avoiding the Black Sea route will definitely have an impact on the kiwi exports to Asia, Manossis explains: \u201cWe also sell kiwis overseas and have not held back in this territory. This means that the problems with the Black Sea route will affect us. Fortunately, only four of our containers were blocked, they are currently still in holding. The shipping companies have told us it\u2019s a matter of days until the issue is resolved. The biggest impact will be a longer transit time for us. Instead of thirty days it might take our containers fourty days or longer to reach the destination . Although delays are inconvenient, we are confident our kiwis could withstand a delay of a month if they had to. Shipping companies have also stated they\u2019ll reserve the right do add a fee to the transports, but the height of this fee is still very much unclear to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some good news for the Greek kiwi exporter; they\u2019ve received an award for their efforts to lower waste. \u201cWe reached up to 95.22% of waste recycling and responsible disposal. We are proud to have done one more step towards environmental protection. We ensure that none of our waste ends up in landfills, minimizing our environmental footprint and promoting responsible waste management practices. Instead, we prioritize waste reduction, recycling, and responsible disposal methods to achieve our goal of zero waste. We\u2019ll also be exhibiting during Fruit Logistica in February. You can find us in Hall 8.2, stand B30,\u201d Manossis concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n