Kiwifruit for S.L?

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 13

Kiwifruit for S.L?

A small native Japanese kiwifruit could become the basis of a South Island kiwifruit industry. This is the view of Mr Graham Kitson, a New Zealand trade consultant, who first spotted the Japanese fruit in Sapporo, capital city of the cold northerly Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Because the fruit grows well in cold weather, Mr Kitson says it could be successfully introduced to the South Island. Called kokuwa, it is of the kiwifruit genus and about the size of a large walnut. Unlike the popular Hayward variety of New Zealand,

kokuwa has a smooth skin, Mr Kitson said. “It has the same distinctive green colour as our Idwifruit though it tastes a little sweeter.” Mr Kitson said he was sitting in a bar in Sapporo when he recognised the leaf of a fruit served up as a snack as belonging to the kiwifruit variety. “These kiwifruit grow wild in Hokkaido so I went out and found some plant material and took it to New Zealand. But customs would not let it into the country because they didn’t know if it was free of disease.” : Mr Kitson, managing director of Japan Trade Research Associates, Christchurch, was undeterred. He applied for,an import licence to bring the fruit into New Zealand, and on a visit to Japan last year went to Hokkaido to find more kokuwa plant material which is now being examined for possible disease by the D.S.I.R. at its Mt Albert laboratories, Auckland. “This kiwifruit is not sold commercially in Japan. They are wild and people Japanese kiwifruit but there could be more growing wild.” just go out and pick them,” Mr Kitson said. “There are three published varieties of native Mr Kitson said he would have to apply to the D.S.LR. to have the plant material released after tests were completed. He would not

have priority rights to the fruit because all kiwifruit is regarded by the Government as of such national significance that development work on new varieties is undertaken on a national basis. “The fruit could be used to start up another kiwifruit industry in the South Island and sold as it is, or it could be used as genetic material to cross with the Hayward variety and produce bigger fruit that is still resistant to the cold,” Mr Kitson said. He said successfully crossing kokuwa with Hayward could take as long as 10 years but if it was grown as it is, kokuwa could take only one or two years to bear fruit in New Zealand.