Growers dumping kiwifruit in gullies, tips—claim

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 24

Growers dumping kiwifruit in gullies, tips—claim

PA Tauranga Growers with unsaleable kiwifruit are said to be dumping it in gullies and rubbish tips or feeding it to cows.

The Katikati Fruitgrowers’ Association president, Mr Hugh Moore, said process kiwifruit were clogging packhouse yards and angry growers were having to dump the fruit. Last year more than 12,000 tonnes was unsuitable for export and was processed or sold on the local market. This year twice the

a amount of reject fruit is a expected. Growers say no a information was given on i processors’ requirements a until two weeks before the season started.

“Growers will have to take a long hard look at the process industry,” he said. “Maybe they will have to come up with share capital to set up processing plants for pulp grade fruit.” The Katipak general manager, Mr Bert van Heuckelum, said bins filled with processed fruit were awaiting delivery to proces-

sors and creating a shortage of bins. Growers were anxious to get fruit off their vines before it was hit by frost or storms.

He said processors had estimated that 15 per cent of the crop would be rejected, but higher grading standards meant about 20 per cent of a bigger crop was being rejected. Mr Jack Jarvis, crop buyer for Mount Processors, Ltd, the main Bay of Plenty processor, agreed that this year’s big crop increase and high reject rate had in-

creased supplies of process fruit. His firm was working 16 hours a day processing and 24 hours grading so bins could be emptied and returned to growers. The firm expected to process 5000 tonnes of fruit, 2000 tonnes up on last year. One solution was for growers to tighten crop husbandry and pick reject fruit before it reached maturity. He said process fruit prices were usually set in April and this year was no different.