Friday, March 29, 2024

Kiwifruit centre to accelerate innovation

Avatar photo
A long-time kiwifruit plant breeder has welcomed the announcement by Zespri and Plant & Food Research to commission an autonomous breeding centre to accelerate new cultivar development.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The two organisations have confirmed plans to commission the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre based at Plant & Food Research’s Te Puke campus in a joint venture proposal. The centre will operate as a single standalone operation, focused purely upon crop cultivars.

Russell Lowe says having such a unit would mean more resources could be focused on ramping up the science required to develop such cultivars.

Lowe was part of the team credited for getting SunGold commercialised rapidly as the industry scrambled for an alternative Gold fruit after its predecessor was ravaged by Psa in 2010.

He has recently retired from 30 years of full-time plant breeding with Plant & Food Research and features as one of Farmers Weekly’s Rural Champions in next week’s end of year special edition.

“We are already on quite a high level in terms of the fruit quality we are growing. But to make further improvements you need a large quantity of germplasm to source those small but important improvements from, and this will enable us to do that,” he said.

He expected the entire breeding programme would become a much tighter, more agile and focused operation.

He says this was increasingly important as overseas competitors, including China and Chile, continued to advance their kiwifruit plantings.

Some fruit improvements already identified by breeders include improving the taste and yield of Green fruit, while the newly commercialised Red still requires work to lift its shelf life, fruit size and crop yield. 

Breeders are working to develop a tetraploid fruit that may help deliver on this better than the current diploid variety.

In a written statement to growers, Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says while based in Te Puke, the centre will also have some presence in Kerikeri, Motueka, Mt Albert and offshore in both Italy and China.

“It represents our commitment to go faster, to explore promising new varieties in our research pipeline and to unlock further innovation, so we can generate even more value for NZ and our regions,” he said.

Zespri has been plagued by a surge in the amount of illegally grown SunGold fruit in China, with 4000ha now estimated in the ground. 

A potential option to explore by Zespri is to consider whether there is a commercial opportunity in commercialising SunGold in China to help mitigate the spread of unauthorised plantings.

Plantings in China could provide a useful off-season supply source alongside Zespri licensed European crops.

In New Zealand, the fruit commanded a licence fee of $400,000 a hectare in the last planting tender.

Zespri and Plant & Food Research have worked together in breeding programmes over 30 years. With three coloured varieties of fruit on the market now, focus is likely to be on incremental advances in fruit parameters. 

However, breeders have also explored other coloured fruit options over the years, including an orange hairless fruit with a slight chilli flavour.

Breeders have also seen potential in a “high potency” kiwifruit variety that has up to 10 times the vitamin C levels of a conventional fruit.

Genomic work has also already meant breeders can identify plant sex through DNA code, rather than growing cuttings out to determine sex.

Other challenges facing industry cultivars in coming years include the impact global warming may have on winter chilling, a requirement for the fruit set. 

Psa also remains a challenge with SunGold plants tolerant to the disease, and an area where breeding may deliver better resistance in future.

Mathieson says the centre aims to be opened by mid-2021, subject to final board approval.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading