Special charter for kiwifruit

Press, 2 June 1982, Page 24

Special charter for kiwifruit

NZPA staff correspondent London Kiwifruit have arrived in Britain a month earlier than in other years because of an air charter. The idea behind the air charter is to lengthen the fruit’s selling season by a month and to “fill the gap” before the arrival of other new season’s fruits. Dalgety New Zealand, which, through its international company, marketed more than 20 per cent of the total kiwifruit crop last year, is starting a big drive to increase sales of the fruit in Britain. Although it is predicted by the exporting company and the London Fruit Importing Company that Britons will spend £1 million (SNZ2.3 million) on 120,000 trays of kiwifruit this year, sales in Britain still lag behind other European countries. Germany, Belgium, and France all purchase more of the fruit, but with New Zealand production ready to leap from six million trays to 40 million over the next 10 years, importers hope to increase their sales in Britain. Previously, small “parcels” of kiwifruit have been

air freighted to Britain but this is the first time that any major charter has been undertaken. The charter was of 3000 trays. The first of the season’s kiwifruit to be sent by sea will arrive in Britain about June 20 in the Mairangi Bay. While Dalgety’s is pushing . the sale of the fruit to the importing companies in Britain, the kiwifruit Information Bureau, the organisation that handles all the advertising and promotion, of the fruit, is still not sure what the campaign will be this year. “We did have the campaign organised but we have just found out that there is a somewhat reduced crop this year so we are trying to rearrange .things,” said a bureau spokesman. ' Other exotic fruits from New Zealand are appearing unannounced in a few selected' London fruit shops. Robert Bruce’s in Covent Garden, the heart of London and the site of the old fruit and vegetable wholesale market, specialises in exotic fruits and at the moment has tamarillos and feijoas from New Zealand.