N.Z. kiwifruit ‘different’

Press, 20 November 1982, Page 10

N.Z. kiwifruit ‘different’

PA Tauranga New Zealand kiwifruit should be differentiated from that of other producing countries, the managing director of the Kiwifruit Authority, Dr D. T. Brash, said after a recent visit to the United States. Dr Brash was a member of an authority team in the United States when the first of the Californian kiwifruit crop came on to the market, last month. “It was not of good quality,” he said. “Even though it had been picked during the previous fortnight, some of it wac QOft “I am not saying that California cannot produce fruit of high quality, but only that what we saw was not

high-quality fruit. “While New Zealand kiwifruit was selling for JU513.50 a tray wholesale, the Californian fruit was , being sold at ?USIO. ••. “We saw 11.3 kilogram bulk packs selling for JUS7.SO, about the same as New Zealand growers, are ; paid for process fruit. "So the United States fruit was significantly lower in . price than the New Zealand fruit. “The difference in price is recognition of an acceptance that New Zealand kiwifruit is of a specially high standard. “We must work to capitalise on the special nature of our fruit,” Dr Brash said.