The harvest season for satsuma mandarins is off to an early start this year after favourable growing conditions over the past months.
The country's largest citrus grower T&G Fresh is expecting to sell between 12 and 14 million mandarins in New Zealand this season.
Tom Chamberlain, the company's Northland regional manager, says long, sunny days over the past few months combined with some rainfall in early January has led to a bumper crop.
"We're pretty happy with how the fruit developed," he told Magic Talk's Rural Today on Monday.
"It's been a really good growing season."
He said this season kicked off around 10 to 12 days earlier than in previous years.
As the satsuma - which is known for being an "easy-peel, seedless" variety of mandarin - has grown in popularity in recent years the supply has also increased, says Chamberlain.
The mandarins are now the largest volume citrus crop in the country.
"The supply itself has grown in the past five years and it's reached a level where it's probably a good level for the domestic market within New Zealand.
"We're able to supply a lot of the country and fulfil that demand."
As well as growing the variety for the domestic market, T&G also export the fruit to Asia, primarily to Japan.
