Italian company Summerfruit has obtained the rights to produce and market a new early variety of yellow-fleshed kiwifruit.
According to several reports, the company will produce undertake trial plantings across 800ha of land – half in Europe, half in Chile – over the coming year.
The variety, known only as AC1536, was developed by researchers at the Universities of Bologna and Udine, and is grown at the same time as green kiwifruit.
Giampaolo Del Pane, director of Summerfruit, told Fresh Fruit Portal the variety was the first of its kind that could be produced from September in the Northern Hemisphere and during February and March in the Southern Hemisphere.
Availability of yellow-fleshed kiwifruit has been greatly reduced in international markets this year following the devastating impact of the bacterial disease Psa in New Zealand and Italy, the world's two largest producers of the fruit.
