Innovation in New Zealand is bringing new native variety Rockit to market as well as seeing the only commercial southern hemisphere plantings of French variety Ariane.
Rockit has been developed by NZ researchers and is marketed in the UK exclusively through Worldwide Fruit into select Marks & Spencer stores.
“We are about to start shipping but quantities will be very small,” said Phil Alison of grower Havelock North Fruit Co. in Hawkes Bay. “The fruit is only about one-and-a-half times the size of a golf ball, which is tiny: just four or five bites.”
Rockit, which has a block red colour, has already been honoured as an NZ Food Awards innovation winner and as well as its size, is notable for very high flavours and sugars, small core and good storage.
“We really see Rockit tapping into the water bottle and small chocolate bar markets,” said Alison. In New Zealand, the fruit is marketed in tubes of five apples which have the same footprint as a 500ml water bottle.
Meanwhile, Richard and Sue Hoddy are growing Ariane in the Nelson area and have 24,000 trees on 8ha of their total 350ha of top fruit. His business Vailima Orchard is one of four shareholders in Heartland Fruit NZ, which already supplies one of the UK’s top four multiples. This season it has produced 134 tonnes of Ariane, a volume the Hoddys expect to triple next season.
Ariane is a highly coloured bi-coloured type and has a short harvest window in New Zealand of two weeks in mid-March. It is characterised by high sugars and is resistant to scab, requiring 30 per cent of standard fungicide programmes.
