South Africa has been growing gold kiwifruit for around 10 years, but it is only during recent years that the production is really coming on and has a good consistent export quality fruit.
In the first week of February, the first harvest started in orchards in the Eastern Transvaal and this week the harvest commenced in Kwazulu-Natal. “The volumes in South Africa are increasing rapidly and we expect to have around 1200 tons exported this season,” said Pete Nicholson from Roselands Farm.
Peter is one of the owners of the “SunVeld” varieties, one of which is “Cape Gold” which is in it’s fourth year of commercial production. The SunVeld varieties were bred in New Zealand by Don Skelton and have a very similar eating experience to Hort16A which many consumers still believe to be the best eating gold kiwi-fruit.
“We are very excited about this year’s crop which is six to eight weeks earlier than New Zealand, meaning we are perfectly placed to fill in the gap in between the European supply and the first arrivals of SunGold from New Zealand.”
SunVeld kiwifruit
South Africa is currently exporting the majority of their gold kiwifruit to Europe with some small trial shipments to Asia. "We are regularly contacted by buyers across the northern Hemisphere looking for supply in our window but with such small volumes we are limited to who we can supply.
“This year the quality is fantastic and we have exciting new orchards coming into production, so volumes will increase rapidly in the next five years. In comparison to New Zealand we are a very small producer with only 350 HA planted but it is potentially a 2000 hectare industry.”
Grower days which took place last week last week, technical support is vital to growing kiwifruit especially for new growers
The first gold kiwifruit should arrive in the EU in around 2 weeks’ time and Pete is expecting a good market. “There will still be some European fruit on the market, but not much. Initially we expect very good prices, which will drop off as the New Zealand fruit arrives.”
For more information:
Pete Nicholson
Roselands Farm
Tel: +27 82 457 1614
[email protected]