Despite their early appearance it has taken almost 100 years for New Zealanders to rediscover the species and the horticultural crop which is equal to and on many markets superior to that produced in the originating countries. These countries, particularly Australia, are likely to remain our principal importers. New Zealand's chestnut production corresponds to our competitors off season production. This provides us with a slight marketing advantage, however more importantly it is the quality of New Zealand chestnuts which will continue to be to our competitive advantage. It has also recently become apparent that compared to other countries the per hectare yield of our New Zealand chestnuts is exceedingly high, and that coupled with economy of scale, results in a crop with very low costs of production relative to other horticultural crops.
Chestnuts are one of the world's most traded horticultural crops.
The two primary sources of export chestnuts are from China and Europe, whose industries are based on their own indigenous chestnut species Castanea mollissima and sativa. It is unlikely that New Zealand has any international competitive advantage in basing its chestnut export industry on those species. The key to New Zealand's continuing export success is in the presentation of a high quality, large nut, which is graded to both national and internationally recognised standards. Unfortunately New Zealanders don't generally know what chestnuts are. At long last companies, such as The Chestnut Company of New Zealand Ltd have raised the necessary capital to pursue the processing of chestnuts.