The board of directors of the California Kiwifruit Administrative Committee, in a meeting July 23, approved an estimate for the total volume of California kiwifruit expected to be marketed from the 2014 harvest in the range of 6.8 million to 7 million seven-pound tray equivalents.

In context, that would be considered “a normal production year,” according to Nick Matteis, assistant director of the committee.

The harvest is expected to start around the latter part of September, Matteis told The Produce News Sept. 10. That is “slightly early” compared to most years but nothing significant, he said. Shipments will continue into spring.A worker in a California kiwifruit vineyard empties a picking bag of freshly harvested fruit into a field bin.

The blooms were a week earlier than last year, “which would lead one to think we would be a week earlier on harvest,” Matteis said. However, he added that “a lot of growers are waiting for fruit to  mature a little bit more” before picking to get higher sugars and assure consumer satisfaction. The industry has minimum soluble solids requirements, and growers are permitted to harvest and ship when Brix reaches 6.2, but many growers prefer to wait until the Brix level is around 7 before picking, Matteis said.

Some packers also urge others to hold back on the harvest waiting for higher sugars, and they make “good points,” Matteis said. But “the regulations state you can ship” at 6.2, “so it is up to the packer to decide” what their own priorities are.

The crop is expected to start on a strong market, as Chilean imports during the summer have been lighter than usual due to a freeze.

Chile usually has “more significant volumes in the channels at the start of our season” than they do this year, Matteis said.

This year “it will be pretty well cleaned out, so by way of competition, it looks like everything is indicating that it should be a good marketing season in general.”

Some Italian kiwifruit will be coming into the market during the California season, mostly to the East Coast. Italy is also expected to have a normal crop this year.

There have been some questions as to whether the drought in California might affect the kiwifruit volume this year, Matteis said. The Kiwifruit Administrative Committee planned to take “another look” at the crop estimate about mid-September in the light of that concern to determine whether any adjustment in the  projection is merited, “but I haven’t heard of any significant reductions expected in volumes to date,” he said.

The primary function of the committee is to maintain grade and size standards, Matteis said. “However, we did just undergo a referendum, which passed,” to amend the federal marketing order and allow the committee to perform marketing and promotion activities “based on approval of a plan” for such activities by the board of directors. As of yet, no plan has been put forward.

Previously, marketing activities had been carried out by the California Kiwifruit Commission, but the commission  was discontinued in 2012 following a 2011 grower referendum in which we didn’t get enough votes to continue, by a very narrow margin,” Matteis said.

“Since we lost the commissions, we didn’t have that kind of function as an option for the industry,” he continued. Now, under the new amendment, the industry has the ability “to engage in that sort of activity to some extent through the committee” if the board so decides. “But currently we don’t have a formal program put together.”