Pepino licences granted

Press, 6 September 1984, Page 3

Pepino licences granted

Wellington reporter

Pepinos, a fruit which has been grown in South America since ancient times but which, has only recently attracted commercial interest in New Zealand will be produced and sold in this country using plants bred by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Five nurseries at Waimea, Templeton, Kaikohe, Kumeu, and Te Puna have been licensed by the Minister of Science, Mir Tizard, to produce and sell pepinos. The pepino is a sweet and juicy dessert fruit rather like a rock melon. It is a sub-tropical South American crop, native to the Peruvian Andes.

Pepinos have been in New Zealand for at least 40 years, but commercial interest is recent. The D.S.I.R. sent plant expeditions to Ecuador, Peru, and Chile before choosing the variety covered by the licences.

Mr Tizard said the D.S.I.R. did further research to improve the cultivars imported. The fruit are rounded or elongated, like a small eggplant, and are yellow with purple streaks. They are grown like tomatoes, either in the field or under cover.

The nurseries will test five varieties — miski, kawi, suma, aska, and comeraya — and Japanese buyers are showing an interest in the trials.