Greek kiwi cultivation is slowly shifting from only green kiwi varieties, towards yellow and red kiwi varieties, which make up 20 per cent of the production for Greek fruit nursery Vitro Hellas S.A, says Aris Konstantinidis, sales manager for the nursery: "The last decade, in Greece there was a trend for green kiwi varieties, mainly Hayward and especially Hayward 'Clone 8', but the last three to four years, there has been a great demand for yellow and red kiwi varieties. We've collaborated with the Italian company Jingold and we are the official producers of Jintao, Jinyan, which are yellow varieties and the red variety Dong Hong. We've changed our production and almost 20 per cent of the production is yellow and red varieties. The demand from the growers is increasing, especially after the prices of the first production!"
Although most of the kiwi plant production is destined for the Greek market, some of them are exporterd to other countries and the nursery would like to increase the exports of kiwi plants in the future, Konstantinidis explains. "We export some green kiwi plants to Turkey and Italy, but it is only a small percentage. About 90 per cent is for the Greek market. However, we would like to change that the coming years. Our quality is excellent, as we produce kiwis by tissue culture, and we can be competitive with other nurseries that are producing kiwis."
Looking ahead, Vitro Hellas wants to tackle climate change and is involved in research programs to help strengthen the kiwi varieties, Konstantinidis states: "We as a company, are participating in several research programs with Universities from Greece and from other countries. The climate is changing rapidly and we're trying to find ways to adjust in such changes through these research programs. We're acclimatizing our varieties with our private protocol that gives them the strength and the resistance on extreme weather conditions."
According to Konstantinidis, Greek kiwis will only grow in demand. "Greece is one of the major players in the kiwi industry. Our growers knows how to produce fresh desirable kiwis. I hope that in the next years, we'll expand our market share in other countries, as we're able to offer high quality and high production of kiwi plants. Vitro Hellas will help the kiwi sector, by keeping our quality standards at the highest level. I believe that in the future Greek kiwi will be the most recognizable fruit in the market."
For more information:
Aris Konstantinidis
Vitro Hellas S.A
Mob: +30 6972 669 534
Tel: +30 23 330 27281
[email protected]
www.vitrohellas.gr