Colourful new kiwifruit a taste of things to come

A red kiwifruit from Zespri's breeding programme is being sold in the Bay despite it being rejected for mass commercialisation.

But the global marketing giant says a successful new cultivar could be ready to export in 2017.

A Zespri spokeswoman said four growers were selling about 8000 trays of red kiwifruit in New Zealand during March and April.

The kiwifruit had light-green to gold coloured flesh with a red starburst in the centre, she said.

"It has a sweet, juicy taste similar to gold-fleshed kiwifruit," she told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.

The variety came out of trials as part of Zespri's breeding programme and was not a commercialised Zespri cultivar but was naturally produced by hand-pollinating one promising parent variety with another.

Zespri had allowed the growers to sell the fruit on the local market while they transition into other varieties, she said.

Last year Zespri, Plant & Food Research and the Government invested more than $12 million in the new cultivar breeding programme.

"This programme developed the gold varieties Hort16A and Gold3, which have added more than $4 billion to the NZ economy. We have both a green kiwifruit and a different red kiwifruit in pre-commercial trials.

"If they have the attributes we need for a successful Zespri cultivar - great taste, good yield, size and storage, Psa tolerance, strong health attributes, consumer liking, we would consider commercialisation from 2017."

In 2014, Plant & Food research business manager and kiwifruit sector champion Stuart Kay told the Bay of Plenty Times kiwifruit accounted for 25 per cent of its business and was the largest project of its type in the world.

More than 100,000 cultivars were in a nationwide evaluation programme which included its site at Te Puke.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc president Neil Treblico said Zespri was working on a new red variety that growers would like to see commercialised.

"But it is a high hurdle that a new variety has to jump to become commercially viable so I can understand why Zespri is being cautious. It is a huge start-up cost."

However, Mr Treblico said you could expect to see "more of this where new varieties are being trialled commercially to see if they are likely to be a success or not".

Fresh Market Gate Pa owner David Stewart had red kiwifruit at his store and said they "are stunning and a really cool looking fruit".

People were always a bit shy when it came to trying different varieties but when the volumes and crops increased he expected it to be a good seller.

It was on the shelf for $6.95 per kg compared to gold and green kiwifruit that was $2.95 per kg.