Kiwifruit Innovation Great, But Late

Kiwifruit Innovation Great, But Late

Today’s announcement of more green and gold kiwifruit varieties is being welcomed by the company that named the fruit, but Turners & Growers says while innovation’s great, Zespri is late in developing new varieties and lags well behind global competitors who have several lucrative new varieties already on the shelves in world supermarkets.

Turners & Growers CEO, Jeff Wesley says that after millions of dollars of taxpayer funding and years of development Zespri is struggling to come up with a game changing variety that stands out from other development being done around the world.

“In a highly competitive, deregulated global produce market, Turners & Growers and ENZA have consistently identified great fruit varieties and have got on with successfully commercialising them. Zespri’s announcement today is just the first step and its varieties will have to compete with many others for the attention of global consumers who are demanding ‘breakthrough’ products, not just technical tweaks to what they already buy.”

Turners & Growers leadership on new kiwifruit variety development for New Zealand growers has seen Zespri come under pressure to show some results from the multi-million dollar taxpayer investment in Zespri’s bid to create new fruit for market.

Jeff Wesley says Turners & Growers and ENZA welcome competition and innovation from Zespri: “But if New Zealand is to achieve its goal of doubling the value of exports, the outdated kiwifruit regulations need to be reviewed to allow other owners of premium kiwifruit varieties, that are already a hit with international consumers, to get on with exporting the fruit from New Zealand.”

“Turners & Growers wants to ensure New Zealand growers are the Southern Hemisphere's leading producers of its new varieties, be it kiwifruit, apple or other products we are looking at for the future (all of which the company owns or holds the rights to). We already know from the international success of our kiwifruit varieties that ENZAGold, Summerkiwi and ENZARed will bring combined export earnings into New Zealand of around $469 million, without a cent from the taxpayer.”

Fifty-one years on from naming the kiwifruit, Turners & Growers remains at the forefront of the kiwifruit industry with several new varieties that it has developed and tested for production and export from New Zealand. The company holds the global Intellectual Property Rights to new varieties, ENZAGold™, ENZARed™ and the regional rights to Summerkiwi™.

“We’ve got successful new varieties already proven with consumers. ENZARed is the world’s first commercialised Red Kiwifruit, which sells at a 17% premium to gold kiwifruit in the European market and the earlier, sweeter green Summerkiwi sells at a premium to Hayward.”

Jeff Wesley said Turners & Growers work on new varieties began back in 2003 following its merger with ENZA (formerly the New Zealand Apple & Pear Marketing Board). ENZA is a leading player in the global pipfruit trade that has developed and commercialised several of the world’s most popular apple varieties including Braeburn, Royal Gala, Pacific Rose and the new JAZZ and ENVY apples. Following the merger, Turners & Growers saw an opportunity to pursue a new kiwifruit variety development programme using ENZA’s development background.

“ENZARed is just another example of our ability to identify ‘breakthrough’ fruit and get on with commercialising it as we have with apples like JAZZ and ENVY.”

Turners and Growers has already started converting many of the company’s own Hayward vines to its new varieties in New Zealand. ENZAGold is already in commercial production. The first Summerkiwi fruit were picked in Kerikeri this season and the variety will be in commercial production in New Zealand next year.

Turners & Growers is working to establish New Zealand as the Southern Hemisphere’s growing hub for ENZARed™. It has a major propagation project underway at its research facility in Kerikeri to produce ENZARed™ plants and grafting material for next year when Turners & Growers will be grafting several thousand ENZARed™ plants on its orchards here.

China is now in its third season of commercial production of ENZARed™ where domestic demand for the fruit is so strong that export volumes of the fruit have been limited. In Italy, Turners & Growers is growing several hundred thousand ENZARed™ plants to establish large ENZARed™ orchards in both Italy and France. By 2012 the company will have around 100 hectares of ENZARed™ growing in the two countries to boost supply to the European market during Europe’s winter.

ENDS

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