Late season crop packs full flavour

Dermott Malley on his Maungatapere kiwifruit orchard. Photo / John Stone

The Indian summer has meant a late harvest for Northland kiwifruit producers - but they have managed to pack away quite a lot of gold.

There has been a record harvest for the earlier ripening golden variety of the popular export fruit.

Northland's representative for the New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Association, Dermott Malley, said that although the picking and packing season is late this year, the region's growers have produced good tasting fruit, and in high volumes.

"We'll have a record-breaking crop in this recovery of the gold varieties that were affected by Psa (Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae)."

That gold kiwifruit harvest has mostly finished and the green varieties are coming on stream now, Mr Malley said.

The brix - or sweetness - measurement of the fruit has not been affected by the long, late season but there has been a higher measure of what the industry terms "dry matter" in some of the crop, he said. Dry matter is one of the determinants of flavour.

Mr Malley said Kerikeri-grown fruit, followed closely by Whangarei, were above the national average in the industry's taste and quality measurement.

"We grow good tasting fruit in Northland."

Last year the industry reviewed the way it measured taste and achievement, with some standards being raised to keep New Zealand grown fruit at the top of the international market, he said.

Because of its recognised quality, New Zealand's kiwifruit crop amounted to only 20 per cent of the international market but more than 50 per cent of its value. The industry in Northland is worth about $20 million.

Kerikeri orchards were hit fairly hard by the bacteria Psa, which decimated Bay of Plenty vines in 2011 through 2013.

Growers have been able to bounce back with the new Sungold variety that is more resistant to Psa - "resistant although not immune," Mr Malley said.

The bacteria has shown up in Whangarei vines only recently, in what growers hope is a minor and already contained outbreak.