New Zealand's apple season has got under way with the first Cox having arrived and a second vessel docking this week. Roger Growcott, sales director of Enza Worldwide, claims the fruit is looking good, and has been making up to £16/ctn on the wholesale markets. Cox will be available until June through some late programmes with multiples, with an export total of some 500,000 tray carton equivalents to the UK. Royal Gala will be in volume by mid April. Growcott said the main focus of Enza's marketing this season will be prepacked fruit. Meanwhile the effect of deregulation on the New Zealand apple industry will be scrutinised at the Fruit Handling and Logistics Conference in Rotterdam next month. Roger Boons, operations manager for Enza Fruit New Zealand (Continent), will outline how export volumes are expected to fall over a number of years. He is set to paint a bleak picture of the fruit supply chain and will discuss "how the ability to control quality will diminish as the fruit trade mutates into a short-term opportunity business". {{FRESH PRODUCE }}

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