Rescued kiwifruit turned into premium snacks.
ANelson company is investing millions to make classy snacks from reject gold kiwifruit that would be fed to cows or dumped.
Thanks to local investors, Little Beauties has raised more than $4 million in the past two years to expand and automate the drying of kiwifruit, feijoas, and berries.
General manager Tristan Wastney says machines developed with assistance from Callaghan Innovation now do the work of about five people who used to peel, slice and place fruit on drying trays.
He says drying fruit ‘‘sounds simple, but it’s scientific’’, and an experimental attempt to airdry fresh boysenberries was a spectacular flop.
‘‘It looked like someone had been murdered in our driers, and it took two weeks to clean them, it was a nightmare, we thought it was a good idea at the time, but hey, you have to try these things.’’
The family business grew out of a desire to add value to feijoas grown in the orchard established by Wastney’s parents Ian and Sally.
His wife Sylvia manages dispatch, food shows and farmers markets, while brother Alexander and sister-in-law Kristin’s Hamilton company Designwell does the branding.
This year Little Beauties plans to process 150 tonnes of golden kiwifruit and Wastney says it is hugely satisfying reducing the amount of fruit going to waste.
‘‘This is the fruit that would end up on a dairy farm being fed to cows, or dumped in landfill. Anything that has any form of blemish or is the wrong shape . . . it’s solely cosmetic.
‘‘We’re on a mission to make sure no piece of fruit is left unpicked.’’
Wastney says air drying fresh fruit produces something soft and chewy akin to fruit leather, and the reduction in volume that occurs during drying is significant.
‘‘Our kiwifruit slices are 6 millimetres thick going into the dryer, and they come out paper thin after about 18 to 20 hours at between 45 and 55 degrees Celsius.
‘‘If we put 100 kilograms of fruit into our air driers we get seven to 10kg back . . . the cost of removing water from anything is ridiculously expensive.’’
A recent partnership with Trade Aid has resulted in that organisation taking over the job of dipping organic gold kiwifruit slices in organic dark chocolate, a premium product aimed at the United States market.
Freeze drying is used for frozen fruit, such as boysenberries and feijoas which have a short season, and it intensifies the flavour. ‘‘If you have a tart fruit, it’s going to come out super tart.’’
Wastney says there are many variables to take into account such as the ripeness of the fruit, timing of harvest and soil types, and he likens the flavour variation to annual wine vintages.
‘‘It’s no different for us because we’re dealing with a raw fruit product, and it changes from year to year.
‘‘For example one orchard, all the fruit, even the stuff falling on the ground, was really sour . . . it was a very hard clay soil type, so we’re working out how to make the fruit sweeter.’’
It is hard competing with dried fruit brands made from much cheaper imported berries, but Wastney says they are committed to offering a decent return to New Zealand growers, which is why automation to pump up processing volumes is so important.
Little Beauties has seven mostly Nelson suppliers, and sources organic kiwifruit from the North Island and blueberries from Tauranga’s iwi-owned Miro Berries.
Wastney is also keen on the Wakefield raspberry variety developed by Plant & Food Research because it is larger, sweet, firmer and can be machine-harvested, an important consideration when it is difficult to get pickers.
‘‘The idea is that a husband and wife can make a living off two hectares of land, kind of like it was 20 years ago.’’
Export volumes are small at present, and getting shipping
‘‘It looked like someone had been murdered in our driers . . . we thought it was a good idea at the time, but hey, you have to try these things.’’ Tristan Wastney
space is an issue as Covid-19 continues to disrupt supply lines.
Little Beauties now has 25 staff and Wastney says Covid-19 forced it to set up a proper e-commerce store.
About 40 per cent of sales come from Australia, much of it from homesick Kiwis pining for feijoas and happy to buy the freeze-dried version.