Get a taste of the new Zespri kiwifruit
The world is waiting for a good red kiwifruit, says Zespri, and the national exporter hopes to deliver in a couple of years.
Visitors to the Zespri site at Fieldays this weekend can sample the bright red fruit.
However it’s a few years away from being on the shelves with the company taking time to make sure the fruit is viable from orchard right through to consumer markets, chief executive Dan Mathieson says.
“It's an exceptional piece of fruit with strong consumer attraction, but we're still struggling with storage [time],” he said.
Target storage time is 12 weeks and Zespri is currently at eight weeks.
The Zespri Red, developed through plant breeding, was trialled last month with Singaporean kiwifruit buyers and “created a buzz”, Mathieson said. It tastes sweeter than green varieties and is similar to the gold.
The fruit is two years into a fiveyear pre-commercial trial stage.
Years of red fruit plant development by Zespri was wiped out by the Psa disease epidemic in 2010-2011 and while the Zespri Red was not immune to the disease, it put up a good fight against it, a spokesperson said.
When it is commercialised, the red fruit will be able to be grown in all New Zealand kiwifruit areas except the South Island and Whanga¯rei. These areas escaped Psa and no new plant material can be taken into them.
The red fruit's promise is not just in its colour and sweet taste but in the fact it can be harvested as early as late February, helping Zespri's goal of providing high-quality kiwifruit year-round.
New Zealand's rival for developing the world's best red kiwifruit is China.