California to match N.Z. kiwifruit crop

Press, 27 July 1981, Page 11

California to match N.Z. kiwifruit crop

By .

JOHN HUTCHISON

San Francisco

California will match New Zealand's projected production of 25 million trays of kiwifruit for 1985, predicted the president of the state's kiwifruit commission, Mr Paul Lessig, who recently returned from a visit to New Zealand. He made the forecast at a kiwifruit, cultural, and equipment show at which the president of Kiwi Growers of California, Mrs Helen Klein, announced that her organisation. which started a few years ago with 21 members, now has 600. The commission is established under state law, with authority to levy a kiwifruit sales tax, to fund a promotion and marketing campaign. Mrs Klein’s group is a growers' association, concerned with improvements in the cultivation, production,

and quality of fruit. It seeks a national standard for kiwifruit, approval for which is expected next year, and asks that the Environmental Protection Agency declare tolerance levels for pesticides and herbicides. Until now, the relative unimportance of the fruit in American agriculture has given it a low priority in both Government and chemical industry standards. The priority promises to rise sharply with expanding kiwifruit acreage. California produced a million trays of the fruit last year, and almost 90 per cent of the crop was sold overseas. Mr Lessig said that the commission had allotted $350,000 for the promotion of the 1981 crop. He told the growers that he hoped to develop a marketing strategy in collaboration with New' Zealand producers.