Zespri to trial new red kiwifruit cultivar

o cer at Zespri Carol Ward says earlier growing new commercialised varieties came with inherent uncertainties.

Zespri will begin pre-commercial growing trials of a new red kiwifruit cultivar this winter.

Zespri chair Bruce Cameron says the cooperative wants to extend the RubyRed season because there is high demand for the fruit in export markets. In April, growers battled with smaller than usual red fruit after a wet season a ected growing conditions.

But in June Zespri announced it had almost tripled the number of RubyRed kiwifruit it exported compared to last year.

With new orchards in production the cooperative exported 330,000 trays of the red fruit to Japan, China, Singapore and Taiwan.

Only 111,000 trays of the variety were exported to the same countries last year.

Bruce says with more RubyRed orchards reaching maturity in future the cooperative expects to supply around 6.9 million trays of the fruit by 2027/28.

“ e decision to progress another red variety to pre-commercial trials is part of our e ort to explore how to extend our supply of Zespri RubyRed Kiwifruit throughout the season and return more value to growers,” he says. is process usually took around ve years to complete, he says.

“ e new cultivar that will enter pre-commercial trials is expected to have di erent seasonal timing to Red19 [Red19 is marketed as RubyRed] making it a complementary variety,” he says.

If commercialised, the new variety, along with Red19, will help the cooperative meet growing demand and keep red fruit on shelves for a longer period, Bruce says.

Any varieties entering pre-commercial trials must meet speci c performance targets before they would be considered for commercialisation, he says.

Zespri did not say what the speci c performance targets are or what the di erence between the new variety and Red19 is.

Bruce says knowledge gained developing and commercialising Red19 possibly allowed for faster trials, with only a limited number of orchards used.

Chief grower and industry and sustainability