Gold and green but red in between

A red kiwifruit from Zespri's breeding programme is being sold in the Bay of Plenty 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 said.

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.

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". NZME.