New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri has launched three new green and Gold kiwifruit varieties to growers and announced plans for orchard trials of two red types just days after would-be rival Turners & Growers unveiled global plans for its EnzaRed cultivar.
Zespri is licensing some 600 hectares for planting or grafting - about five per cent of New Zealand’s total kiwifruit acreage - of the new types. They are an early-season Gold (Gold 3), a sweet green type, and a later season Gold with potential for long-term storage. Some 200ha of each fruit will be in the ground over the NZ winter this year and first significant sales volume is expected in 2013.
Zespri ceo Lain Jager said: “New Zealand can meet demand for Zespri Gold for 20 weeks of the year…Today’s decisions are about taking that towards 30 weeks.”
The new early season Gold variety is expected to be exporterd in March and arrive into markets some three weeks ahead of existing Gold. Zespri hopes its other new Gold type will give it availability on markets into the northern hemisphere autumn. Both will be marketed under the existing Gold brand as their taste profile is near-identical.
Jager hopes that the new green fruit will bring new consumers into the kiwifruit market as it is a sweeter type. It will be exported to “premium markets”, he said and a decision on its branding will follow next year.
Media interest in red varieties has been massive and Zespri expects to see results from its orchard trials on the two reds in a maximum of three years time.
Meanwhile, Turners & Growers rolled out its plans for EnzaRed this week trumpeting the new kiwifruit as the “world’s first commercialised red variety”.
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