New Zealand's largest fruit exporter, T&G Global, announced strong financial results for 2020, which saw profits in its apple business skyrocket by more than 50 percent.

The company, which owns the apple brands Jazz and Envy, said that total revenue rose from NZD1.2 billion (US$874 million) to 1.4 billion (US$1.02 billion).

Total net profit after tax was registered at NZD16.6 million (US$12 million), up from NZD6.6 million (US$4.8 million).

T&G’s said its apple business had an "outstanding year", improving its operating profit by 56 percent, from $33.5 million (US$24.4 million) in 2019 to $52.1 million (US$37.8 million) in 2020.

A 23 percent increase in the sales of T&G’s New Zealand Envy apples saw the crop sell out before the arrival of northern hemisphere fruit, thanks to strong consumer demand.

A sustained focus on harnessing the best genetics, building premium brands, delivering strong sales momentum in Asia and continually optimizing its supply chain, all contributed to the strong result, T&G said.

Chief Executive Gareth Edgecombe says the results are a credit to the team’s hard work and the ongoing transformation to improve T&G’s underlying performance.

“It’s been a year of extraordinary challenges, with the COVID-19 pandemic creating uncertainty and volatility around the world," he said.

"International lockdowns and changes to operating procedures affected the day-to-day running of our business, with other setbacks such as the closure of some international wholesale markets and complexities around the import and export of produce, providing other challenges for T&G."

He added: "The results also follow a concerted transformation over the past few years to become customer-led, deliver value from our intellectual property and build a high-performance culture. While we still have a way to go, our strong underlying results demonstrate our strategy and performance is delivering."