Source: english.agri.gov.cn
Record sales in China and Japan are helping to rebuild New Zealand's kiwifruit industry as it recovers from the Psa vine-killing disease.

Grower-owned kiwifruit giant Zespri issued its December forecast on Thursday, which showed that record yields of the green variety kiwifruit had provided strong sales opportunities around the world.

"Zespri is closing in on total sales of nearly 21 million trays in Japan - a record result for that market. Sales in China also hit a record high of over 18 million trays, up from 11.4 million trays the previous season," Zespri chief executive Lain Jager said in a statement.

Total sales of green kiwifruit were up 16 percent to more than 80 million trays, while sales of the gold varieties at around 33 million trays, including a trebling of sales of the SunGold variety to 27.5 million trays.

The season's final exports to China and Southeast Asia had arrived last week.

The forecast total fruit and service payment to growers was up 177 million NZ dollars (119.35 million U.S. dollars) year on year to almost 1.12 billion NZ dollars (755.22 million U.S. dollars).

"The potential impact of slower global economic growth and foreign currency fluctuations poses some risk but we're going into 2016 with confidence," said Jager.

New Zealand produced around 30 percent of the globally traded volume of kiwifruit, but Psa (Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae) affected around 85 percent of orchards after its discovery in 2010.