New Zealand produce giant Turners & Growers has announced it will enter commercial production of trademarked, green kiwifruit variety Summerkiwi in 2011.

Summerkiwi is an early maturing, sweeter green variety, which has been harvested in trial volumes this April. Turners & Growers estimates it has an export potential of up to 12 million trays a year that will earn around $84 million (£40.6m) each year for New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry.

In 2005 Turners & Growers Summerkiwi in Italy as a variety with exciting potential for NZ growers. The fruit can be differentiated from Hayward by its sweeter taste, emerald green flesh, low acid and softer core. It has also been earning a premium over Hayward in the European market.

According to Turners & Growers md, Jeff Wesley the first pick of Summerkiwi in early April from the company’s grafted Summerkiwi vines marked another step in the new variety’s commercial development in New Zealand.

He said: “We are very pleased with the quality of the first fruit produced and how the fruit has matured. The fruit produced in Kerkeri is delicious with sugars up to 20-plus brix and dry-matter above 20.”

Summerkiwi matures at around the same time as Zespri Gold kiwifruit and is available around four weeks earlier than Hayward in the same growing location. It will give T&G’s NZ growers an earlier start to the green export season than their southern hemisphere competitors.

Wesley said: “Growers here [in NZ] should be the leading suppliers of Summerkiwi in the southern hemisphere. It’s a unique product that expands the shelf-space kiwifruit commands in international supermarkets and will boost orchard gate returns for struggling green growers.”

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