Smart Planet Technologies has sealed a license agreement with Linstol, a leading distributor for the airline cabin industry, to use EarthCoating.

US apple growers will be among the first in the world to get a dazzling taste of New Zealand’s most popular new apple variety. The USA is the first country outside of New Zealand to be licensed to grow and sell the exciting new Dazzle® apple, which was launched a year ago by Fruitcraft. Fruitcraft is a collaboration between three of New Zealand’s largest apple growers, Mr Apple, Bostock New Zealand and Freshmax. Fruitcraft has signed a license agreement with Chelan Fruit and Gebbers Farms. Chelan Fruit is a US cooperative with 325 grower members, farming 14,000 acres in Washington State. Gebbers Farms, farming over 13,500 acres, is one of the largest family owned and managed apple and cherry businesses in Washington State.

Fruitcraft Manager Steve Potbury says Chelan Fruit and Gebbers Farm have been granted the rights for production in the US and marketing rights for the fruit that they grow. “This is the first step in the global licensing of the Dazzle® programme. It gives growers in the US the ability to grow Dazzle® and sell it around the world. Chelan Fruit and Gebbers Farm have committed to planting three million trees over 12 years, and they will be marketing their fruit through their jointly owned company Chelan Fresh, one of the world’s largest apple sellers.” “This will strengthen the positioning of Dazzle® on the global markets. More fruit will help establish the market more quickly and create a stronger following for the brand internationally.” said Mr Potbury. President of Gebbers Farms, Cass Gebbers and CEO of Chelan Fruit Reggie Collins are both extremely excited about the opportunity that the tasty Dazzle apple will provide for their partnership and US apple growers and consumers and retail partners around the world. They anticipate the first commercial plantings to start in 2020. “As a result of our production and marketing strength in Washington we have managed to get hold of this exciting new apple from New Zealand. Dazzle® is very well suited to the US market. It has all the qualities which appeal to US consumers. It is a big, highly coloured and very sweet apple.”

Chelan Fresh Marketing CEO, Tom Riggan stated that about 80 percent of the fruit grown in the US is sold domestically, but Washington growers are looking to export more and the Dazzle® apple offers opportunities for sales in the US and for exports. “The climate in Washington will be perfect for growing Dazzle®. We have warm days and cool nights at the time this mid-season apple is harvested, which will create the ideal environment,” said Mr Collins. Dazzle® branded apples are grown on trees of the variety PremA129, which has been bred in New Zealand and trialled over many years and is owned by Prevar Limited. Prevar licensed global production and marketing rights to Fruitcraft. There are more than 100,000 PremA129 trees now planted in New Zealand with a further 250,000 trees being planted this winter. “We are on track to produce and export one million cartons of Dazzle® by 2028, which will make Dazzle® one of the most popular apples in New Zealand” said Mr Potbury.

Pattullo’s Nurseries owner, Kerry Sixtus, says he has been overwhelmed by the number of Dazzle® trees being planted. “We are way ahead of our targets for planting this apple variety. We don’t have many trees left in the nursery to sell, which shows the popularity and demand from New Zealand apple growers for Dazzle®.” New Zealand’s leading apple growers and exporters, including Mr Apple, Bostock New Zealand and Freshmax are all excited to see years of investment come to fruition with the new apple variety going global. Freshmax director Eddie Crasborn says it’s great to see the Dazzle® apple go global. “It’s been a collaborative approach by New Zealand’s largest apple growers, to promote the apple and cement the brand within the domestic and global markets. “We have all invested heavily in planting trees to grow Dazzle® as we believe it’s a winning apple that will be popular all over the worl

In a world-first, University of Canterbury Hydrological and Ecological Engineering researchers have filed a patent application for their invention the Storminator™, which could be exactly the weapon that our waterways need.

Chronic skills shortages and other capacity constraints in the construction industry have forced the Treasury to halve its forecast rate of progress on the government’s KiwiBuild affordable housing programme.

Where forecasts before Christmas assumed around $5 billion of KiwiBuild-induced “additional nominal residential investment” over the next five years, the forecast is now for just $2.5 billion over that period.

“A greater proportion is assumed to occur outside the forecast period," says commentary from the Treasury in its Budget Fiscal and Economic Update (BEFU), which is published with the Budget.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson told journalists there was no change to the government’s plan to build 100,000 affordable homes within a 10 year period.

The new forecast makes assumptions about how much extra activity the KiwiBuild scheme will induce and about the impact of government policies intended to alleviate construction sector constraints. These include plans to bring migrant construction workers to New Zealand under a special KiwiBuild visa.

“There remains a high degree of uncertainty about the impact that these policies may have,” Treasury said. “Growth in real residential investment may be weaker than forecast if capacity constraints are more binding than assumed.”

That could also lead to KiwiBuild substituting for “other developments that would otherwise have taken place”.

However, the Budget economic forecasts are bullish about the economic outlook over the next five years, driven by an expectation that immigration will fall by less than previously assumed, prices for New Zealand’s exports will remain strong, and the global economy will continue to grow at a robust rate.

On top of that, the surge in government spending caused by the previously announced July 1 Families Package and other initiatives announced in the Budget are expected to underpin average annual growth of 2.9 percent over the next five years.

The forecasts expect real (inflation-adjusted) growth in gross domestic product in the year to June 2019 of 3.3 percent, followed by 3.4 percent in the year to June 2020, and then falling to 2.4 percent and 2.5 percent in the two following years.

These increases are one of the reasons for higher tax revenue forecasts over the next five years, which underpin a larger government spending programme while allowing it to declare Budget surpluses and meet its debt targets.

Inflation stays at or below 2 percent a year throughout the five-year forecast, lower than forecast average wage increases. Compared to the 1.6 percent wage rise in the year to June last year, the June 2018 annual increase in wages is forecast at 3.2 percent and averages 3.1 percent over the next five years.

The current account deficit remains stable at around 3 percent of GDP, unemployment drifts down close to 4 percent by 2020 and stays there, while participation rates in the workforce remain high by world standards at close to 71 percent over the whole five years.

While business investment takes a hit in the year ahead, with a forecast increase of just 1.4 percent, it recovers to a 5 percent increase in 2020, reflecting the Treasury’s judgement that the current slump in business confidence will be short-lived.

However, it notes that “it is possible that uncertainty around any other reforms and their combined impact leads to more cautious behaviour” by investors.

However, much rests on the assumption that very current high levels of net immigration – 68,000 in the year to March – will fall to 25,000 by 2022. That is 10,000 higher than previous Treasury estimates, reflecting the agency’s decision to reset its migration forecasting to mirror the reality of recent history.

However, it also publishes forecasts from an external agency, Sense Partners, whose forecast suggests net immigration could settle around 40,000 a year, based on combining five different forecasting models.

That would raise economic growth rates, increase employment, worsen housing shortages, probably spark higher house price inflation and is assumed to lead to higher interest rates.

A high-immigration scenario published in the BEFU raises the average growth rate over the next five years to 3.1 percent, produces a larger budget surplus than is officially forecast in the Budget, and would get the government to its Crown debt reduction target a year early.

Also published is a scenario in which global trade protectionism increases beyond levels already accounted for, knocking the growth rate over the next five years down to 2.7 percent a year, producing lower surpluses and causing the government to miss its 2022 target to reduce net Crown debt to 20 percent of GDP by 1.4 percentage points.

New Zealand horticulture had another record breaking year in 2017. The industry was valued at $8.8 billion, up $100 million from 2016, and the total value of exports was close to $5.12 billion, up $14 million from the year before.

According to the latest Fresh Facts, an industry annual published by Plant & Food Research, horticultural produce accounted for 10.3% of New Zealand’s merchandise export income in the year to June 2017. The growth was driven by increases in the export values of fresh and processed fruit (excluding wine), from $2.78 billion to $2.82 billion, and fresh and processed vegetables, from $0.61 billion to 0.62 billion. Kiwifruit continued to be the nation’s top horticultural export at $1.66 billion, accounting for 33% of the total export value. It was followed by wine at $1.54 billion, 30% of the total export value.

New Zealand horticultural produce was exported to 128 countries, with five markets—Australia, Continental Europe, the USA, Japan and China—taking up more than two-thirds of the total exports. Exports to Asia reached $1.95 billion, twice as much as any other continent/region.

“The success of New Zealand horticulture is built on its well-earned reputation of delivering high quality and premium products to the overseas markets,” says David Hughes, CEO, Plant & Food Research. “The horticultural industry must keep up the quality and innovate to offer new products that meet international market needs in order to secure our position. Adopting new technologies and best practices to minimise environmental and social impact of the production process will further strengthen our clean, green image in the global marketplace.”

“The continual growth of the New Zealand horticultural industry attests to the quality of our produce and the hard work of our growers,” says Mike Chapman, Chief Executive of Horticulture New Zealand. “We are confident that the industry will meet the $10 billion by 2020 target as long as we are committed to listening to local and overseas consumers and offering products they want and desire.”

To view the latest issue of Fresh Facts, as well as all previous issues, visit www.FreshFacts.co.nz or download the Fresh Facts app on Apple App Store or Google Play.

Key facts* Produce from the New Zealand horticultural sector exceeded $8.8 billion in the year to 30 June 2017.* The total value of horticultural exports was $5.12 billion in 2017, an increase of 91% ($2.7 billion) from 2007.* New Zealand’s biggest horticultural export was kiwifruit, worth $1.66 billion. Other key exports were wine ($1.54 billion), apples ($691 million), and avocado ($147.5 million).* Avocado export demonstrated significant growth from $82 million in 2016 to $147 million in 2017, likely in part to the biennial nature of avocado production. In 2015 avocado export was valued at $115 million.* Exports to five markets: Australia, Continental Europe, the USA, Japan and China accounted for almost $3.5 billion and 67.7% of the total exports.* The diversity of horticultural exports is apparent in the 22 categories exported to Asia, each between $5 million and over $1 billion, and 13 categories to Australia, each between $7 million and over $440 million (fob) value.* More than $200 million worth of honey was exported to Asia and Australia.

Last September four Wintec business students embarked on a learning experience of a lifetime in China.

Friday this week, May 11, will mark Northport’s arrival on the New Zealand container port scene, when Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) makes its first export loading on the newly-revamped Kiwi Express schedule.

Jobs, huge cash boost from proposed city hub. A new engineering hub proposed for Dunedin is part of apush by New Zealand manufacturers to secure a lucrative slice of Australia's $A200 billion ($NZ214 billion) defence upgrade.  Success could help deliver hundreds of new jobs, and tens of millions of dollars, to Dunedin, it has been suggested.  The hub concept was being developed by Farra Engineering chief executive Gareth Evans,backed by the Dunedin Engineering Cluster and the Dunedin City Council.

Concerns of an impending aggregates shortage in New Zealand are throwing uncertainty on the viability of several projects writes Talia Paz Quarry magazine.

Manufacturers, engineers today and through till Thursday is your chance to update yourselves on 3D printer products, specifically the Markforged range with New Zealand master agent Cadpro Systems. Doors open at 0900 this morning.