Kiwifruit marketer Zespri has released a new payout forecast for the 2013 season and prices are looking strong.
Chief executive Lain Jager says everything is on track for growers to be getting healthy returns, with growers of green kiwifruit earning more than $40,000 per hectare, the best return in 10 years.
Mr Jager says the price for gold kiwifruit is also very strong at $12.60 a tray, but that's on reduced volumes because of the vine-killing disease PSA.
He says the 2014 crop, which will shortly start being harvested, is looking good and gold kiwifruit numbers are beginning to recover.
Mr Jager says last year two million trays of the new gold variety were harvested and this year it will be about 9.5 million as vines grafted across from the Hort16A variety of gold kiwifruit - which was decimated by PSA - come into production.