Zespri kiwifruit wins double award

There are so many varieties of kiwifruit but cultivating the right ones is the key. Bryan Parkes from Zespri holds a bunch of kiwifruit from Korea (left) and Andrew Granger holds a standard green.

Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit has won two awards at the NZ Innovation Awards.

Zespri took out Sustained Innovation Excellence and Export Innovator of the Year in Auckland last night.

Bryan Parkes, Zespri operations manager, said Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit had been a fantastic commercial success.

"SunGold was developed in the Zespri-Plant & Food Research new cultivar breeding programme with the support of the NZ government and it's been a real game-changer for the industry."

It had a high yield on-orchard, tolerated Psa, handles and stored well through the supply chain and its sweet, juicy taste and high levels of vitamin C made it a hit in the markets, he said.

The success of SunGold was critical to Zespri achieving its goal of more than doubling sales revenue to $4.5 billion by 2025.

SunGold had created around 6,800 jobs so far and was on track to account for a total of at least 14,000 extra jobs by 2025.

It had a great reception around the world, driving up demand, earning premium prices and generating value for kiwifruit growers.

With such strong positive feedback from the markets, Zespri allocated another 400 hectares of SunGold licence this year and provision for another 400 hectares each year for the next three years.

There were around 5,300 licenced hectares of SunGold in NZ and around another 3000ha licenced around the world to provide 12-month supply to Zespri customers and keep a year-round presence on shop shelves.

"Together Zespri, Plant & Food Research and the government invest around $20 million a year in the breeding programme which has been running since the 1980s, making it one of the largest new cultivar breeding programmes in the world," Mr Parkes said.

"Winning these awards is a real boost for the many researchers who've worked on this programme over the years and I'm both humbled and proud to accept them on their behalf.

"It's takes a long time to commercialise a new cultivar, SunGold was commercialised in 2010 and has almost entirely replaced the previous gold cultivar Zespri Gold or Hort16A, which was very susceptible to Psa," Mr Parkes said.