Beginners Guide to Kiwi Fruit History;…

In 1904, Miss Katie Fraser, the headmistress of a girls’ college in the riverside town, Wanganui, returned from visiting her sister on a mission station in China (Yangtsee River Valley) with some small black seeds. The seeds grew into big-leafed vines hung with hairy russet-skinned berries with bright green flesh. Kiwifruit had arrived in New Zealand.

The horticultural scientist Hayward Wright cultivated and developed the first commercial variety of Chinese Gooseberry in Wanganui in 1929. In the early 1950s, his "Hayward" variety was widely planted in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty.

The name Chinese Gooseberry fell into disuse when more and more people started calling the fruit kiwifruit. By the late 1950s, kiwifruit was already being exported to overseas markets. The name, unfortunately was never copyrighted – and is now a generic name that isn’t owned by anyone.

Tough Times

By the 1970s there were some millionaire growers in Te Puke - but then the industry started shooting itself in the foot. Around $7.5m worth of plants and technical know-how was exported off-shore. A company called Hort Ex even hosted overseas growers here in NZ and won an export award for its efforts.

By 1980s local growers were calling for a ban in the export of plants in the face of world wide oversupply – but it was too late. By 1990 Italy was the world’s biggest kiwifruit grower – with Japan and Chile not far behind NZ.

Zespri

In 1988 the New Zealand Kiwifruit Marketing Board (NZKMB) was established to serve growers as their exclusive exporter. In 1997 NZKMB restructured itself into Kiwifruit New Zealand (KNZ) with responsibility for governing the industry, with ZESPRI International Limited as its 100% grower-owned, consumer-led international marketing organization. Zespri has a global market share of around 70% It has an estimated $1B turnover.

They market two types of fruit – the green and the gold ( Hort 16A ). They own the PVR rights on the latter and that fruit is grown under license in Italy and USA.

The Gold does have a distinctive protuberance at the stalk end which, although it makes life a little difficult for packing and processing, does mean that the fruit is easily differentiated.

Growers – Robbie Ellison
Te Puke

Robbie is a career orchardist who grew up on a dairy farm. Went off and studied Hort and has been in the kiwifruit business for the last 30 years or so. He has 16ha of fruit spread around 3 orchards. He grows green and gold – but primarily the green although he’s in the process of converting some green vines to gold.

He says the biggest frustration this time of the year is the weather….which can wreak havoc on an otherwise good season. He says gold in particular is hard to look after in this weather.

He says that labour is an issue this time of year but he has developed a good team and a good reputation for looking after staff – so tends not to have too many issues.

His wife’s family was in the kiwifruit business and he’s got two sons who’ve shown interest in taking over at some stage.

The Bay of Plenty is the heartland of the growing industry with around 77% of the national area.

There are about 4,500 growers worldwide – with around 2700 of them in NZ.

Organic Systems

The impetus behind the development of the ZESPRI™ System was a desire to help the kiwifruit industry move beyond environmental management towards sustainability.

ZESPRI International looked around the world to identify future trends and recognised that consumers were not only becoming increasingly discerning about the quality of products, but were also demanding to know how these were produced and that they were safe to eat.

The company decided to expand its very successful KiwiGreen programme to include environmental factors, ethical trading practices and hygiene, as part of an evolving process.
The focus of the ZESPRI™ System, introduced in 2000, is on environmental and social responsibility and is in keeping with the principles of sustainable development and its goal for the long-term future. Every aspect of production has to be ecologically, socially and financially sound.

Transparency is a key feature of the business: ZESPRI customers see a transparent process they can audit for verification at any stage, building trust and credibility in the company and its products. The ZESPRI™ System reduces risks and costs as well as gaining customers and consumers: it is an eco-efficient way of operating.

Robbie’s a big fan of the single desk approach to marketing – having seen the industry from both sides of that particular debate.

ZESPRI International Exports.

They ship fruit all through Europe, Asia – especially Japan – and USA. Currently Europe makes up about 60 percent of the volume of sales, followed by Japan with 16 percent, Asia and Korea. Zespri claims their product’s in 60 countries around the world.

Harvest

Fruit is taken from orchard for maturity testing -> lab tests maturity -> picked (if mature enough) -> graded, packed and coolstored -> transported to port for quality checking and loading onto vessels -> shipped to market.

There’s an independent maturity testing lab in Katikati. All fruit must pass through this lab and meet the maturity criteria before it can be picked.

Kiwifruit growers – like every other grower group have ongoing issues with labour. They are using initiatives put in place by the government to employ pacific island labour.

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