UK increasingly important for kaki sales

The UK is becoming an important strategic market for kaki fruit, according to the regulatory council for the protected denomination of origin of kaki from the Ribera del Xuquer, in Spain.

Although France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Russia are all more important in volume terms, interest in the fruit in the UK is growing.

Sendings to the UK for the year to October 2011 had already reached 500 tonnes - more than for the whole of 2010. Total Spanish production of kaki, also known as persimmon, is some 120,000 tonnes annually.