New Zealand Jazz apple season begins

The first of the 2024 Aotearoa New Zealand-grown Jazz apples are now being picked.

This season, T&G Global and its independent growers will collectively pick over 4 million tray carton equivalents of apples this year, including its premium Jazz and Envy apple brands, according to a news release.

 The 2023-24 growing season is off to a great start, with a good quality crop on the trees, says Craig Betty, director of operations for T&G Global.

“Across the country, we’ve had near-perfect apple growing conditions, with hot sunny days and cool nights, enabling the crop to develop great color and eating quality,” Betty said in the release. “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 harvest was starting, some Jazz volumes were impacted, Betty said.

“Our team, together with our independent growers, have put in a huge amount of work to clean up and restore orchards,” he said. “The quality of this season’s crop is a testament to their dedication and effort.”

T&G Global 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, according to the release. This will be followed by the South Island Jazz crop, which will be harvested a few weeks later. T&G Global said its 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, the release said.

“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,” Betty said.

T&G Global says 2024 is the first full season that its automated Hawke’s Bay packhouse has been operational.

“Our Whakatu packhouse helps ensure we have the capacity to handle increasing volumes of fruit and that the quality of our fruit is prioritized by utilizing some of the world’s leading AI defect sorting, soft fruit handling, and robotic fruit packers and palletizer technology,” Betty said.