Zespri’s announcement late yesterday that it will commercialise three new gold and green kiwifruit varieties and move two red varieties to commercial trials has been praised by growers and researchers, but has drawn fire from traditional foe Turners & Growers.
Producer representative New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI) has welcomed the new cultivars, saying planting new varieties was a risk for growers and getting the commercialisation right was critical.
“My belief is that new cultivars that have a sound agronomic base and offer a good market proposition are exciting for our industry,” said NZKGI president Peter Ombler.
“It appears that the three being offered tick all of the important boxes in this regard. The combination of our industry structure and new opportunities such as this will lay the foundation for very significant future growth in the kiwifruit industry.”
He said growers are looking forward to further information about on-orchard practices, storability and consumer preference data that will be released by Zespri as part of in-market trials over coming seasons.
“Growers have been involved in the new variety programme for over 25 years, so we’re well aware of how thorough the process has been to get to this stage,” Mr Ombler states, adding NZKGI’s feedback has indicated many growers are keen to start growing the new varieties.
Turners & Growers (T&G), meanwhile, have criticised the new varieties as too little, too late.
The new varieties are still years from a serious presence in the market, said T&G CEO Jeff Wesley, compared to other new varieties already holding a shelf space beachhead.
“Zespri’s announcement today is just the first step and its varieties will have to compete with many others for the attention of global consumers who are demanding ‘breakthrough’ products, not just technical tweaks to what they already buy,” he stated.
T&G holds the global rights to their own EnzaGold and EnzaRed varieties, as well as regional rights to the early, sweet green variety Summerkiwi.
“We already know from the international success of our kiwifruit varieties that EnzaGold, Summerkiwi and EnzaRed will bring combined export earnings into New Zealand of around NZ$469m, without a cent from the taxpayer,” Mr Wesley claimed.
Zespri’s new varieties were bred by New Zealand crown researcher Plant & Food Research, in part of the same breeding programme that produced the successful Hort16A variety now marketed as Zespri Gold.
Plant & Food’s chief operating officer Dr Bruce Campbell said the research group is pleased with the release of the new varieties, as well as the decision to move two red varieties up to commercial trials.
“We have a longstanding relationship with the New Zealand kiwifruit industry and it is very rewarding for us, and our breeders, to see our cultivars reach this next stage of evaluation and commercialisation,” Dr Campbell said.
Click here to read our exclusive interview with Zespri chief executive Lain Jager
