Zespri European supply manager Dario Vegetti said the challenge for Zespri marketers in Italy and France is to keep supply lines through to Asia in tune.
Shipping times match NZ’s to Europe with five to six weeks required to supply China and Taiwan.
Being sourced from Europe also means no trade access into Japan, with growers there meeting the local market in NZ’s offseason.
Last season’s harvest had 4.7 million SunGold trays grown in Italy and 0.4m in France with about half the crop going overseas and half of that to China.
Longer term, the three-way partnership between Zespri, fruit processors and growers is proving invaluable in helping cement SunGold on shelves.
Growers are attracted by a fruit they see increasing market share and maintaining its premium value in a global fruit market where most branded fruit struggles to keep its place and command a premium.
At Lazio the dictator Benito Mussolini succeeded where dozens of emperors and leaders before him had failed. In the 1930s he had the swampy district drained to become a fruit and vegetable basket for Rome. Now kiwifruit is a key crop in the district.
The region’s greatest challenge is its soil.
Apofruit technical manager Marco Mastroleo says the deep sticky clay can shift from very wet to very dry in just days and demands irrigation on kiwifruit crops through the hot, low-humidity summers.
A typical summer day experienced in early July topped 32C but had only 35% humidity.
“The greatest challenge to get crops to meet their full potential is managing water application and growers are getting much better at this.
“It is easy to apply too much water, which can lead to trunk dieback and rot.”
Growers have overcome the limits shorter sunshine hours impose on crop potential by installing overhead netting to diffuse ultraviolet light, improving ripening and reducing sunburn on fruit. It is also necessary for hail protection.
Good orchardists also spend significant time keeping leaves strategically in place to protect fruit from sunburn.
Fertiliser comes as both solid and through the irrigation system, with each Apofruit grower having a programme developed specifically for them and supplied via a company-developed calander app.
For Mastroleo, Zespri’s established reputation in Italy and now SunGold’s proven track record for generating good consistent returns means finding growers is easier and is helping his company achieve some big growth targets.
“Planting SunGold is also seeing growers move away from quantity to quality with bigger, better fruit required as Zespri standard, with incentives to motivate them to achieve that.”
Latina Lazio is a sister district to Te Puke. It is 40km south of Rome and has 1597ha of SunGold kiwifruit.
Growing aspects
– Good quality water supply for irrigation
– Well established, skilled growing community
– Managable soil type
– Affordable land at €100,000 a hectare for SunGold orchards
– Close technical liaison between growers and processing companies
– Lengthy relationship of 17 years between Zespri, growers and groups
– Strong and ongoing IP transfer between growers in both hemispheres, particularly on Psa control
– 10,000 trays a hectare common, 15,000 trays achievable for good growers
