fbpx
Print this page
Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:25

New variety attracts new customers

Written by  Peter Burke
Zespri's RubyRed kiwifruit will be supplied to consumers in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and China. Zespri's RubyRed kiwifruit will be supplied to consumers in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and China.

According to Zespri, it will be supplying RubyRed to consumers in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and China.

The company says it will be looking to delivering the variety to more markets as volume grows in the coming years. RubyRed is a new variety and in NZ this year around 100 hectares of a total of 415 hectares planted have been available for sale.

The company says during the early sales trials in Singapore, they found that over its relatively short selling window, Zespri RubyRed Kiwifruit attracted new customers to the kiwifruit category. It reports that this saw one in five purchases in 2019 and one in three in 2020 made by shoppers who had not purchased kiwifruit within the past 12 months.

Zespri says trials in all markets found RubyRed consistently attracted younger shoppers more than other Zespri varieties.

RubyRed kiwifruit is described as having a delicious, naturally berry-sweet taste, a smooth, edible skin, and its vibrant red flesh stems from anthocyanins - a naturally occurring pigment. Zespri says RubyRed kiwifruit has high levels of Vitamin C but low GI, meaning it's suitable for consumers monitoring their blood sugar levels.

Breeding work began on developing the red kiwifruit variety in 1993, under the long-running new varieties breeding programme jointly run by Zespri and Plant & Food Research. It is now run as a joint venture by the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre.

After more than 10 years of research, extensive trials and plenty of taste-testing, the variety was commercialised in December 2019.

More like this

Kiwifruit set to benefit from NZ-EU FTA

The fast-tracked implementation of New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (EU) could provide a significant boost for the kiwifruit industry.

Featured

Sheep drench resistance costly

Analysis by Dunedin-based Techion New Zealand shows the cost of undetected drench resistance in sheep has exploded to an estimated $98 million a year.

Dairy sheep and goat turmoil

Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.

Hurry up and slow down!

OPINION: We have good friends from way back who had lived in one of our major cities for many years.

National

Bumper cherry exports in 2024

New Zealand cherry producer Southern Fruits International expects to send up to 340 tonnes of luxury cherries to the global…

Machinery & Products

Pollution into fertiliser

While the new government is sure to “tinker” with the previous administration’s emissions policy, a recent visit to New Zealand…

Smart money backs smart machine

Marlborough-based start-up SmartMachine claims its new machine is one of the most significant operational step changes for viticulture since the…

Robo packer hits a billion

New Zealand inventor and manufacturer Robotics Plus Limited’s fruit packing robot has hit a major milestone of one billion pieces…

Crop care business expands

Five years ago, agricultural machinery specialist Lemken acquired the Dutch company Steketee B.V and expanded its crop care product portfolio…