Yellow kiwi making its comeback with Soreli variety

Demand for yellow fleshed kiwi was revived recently by the production of Zespri Gold (Hort 16 A). The previous decline was due to its sensitivity to PSA which caused the supply in the European market to dwindle to very low levels. A resurgence of planting and topworking of yellow selections has taken place in the past few years to replace this supply.

The home grown Italian yellow fleshed variety - Soreli was bred by the University of Udine team of Prof (s) Testolin and Cipriani. The variety is the earliest maturing kiwi variety and is set to open the market each year for fruit produced in Italy and other European kiwi territories. Soreli has proven its productivity and tolerance for PSA and is receiving strong support from European kiwi growers. The kiwi is in demand with more than 400 ha’s established in Italy over the past few years and with many new hectares to be planted and topworked this year.

The variety is currently under a new management system in Italy by BGIP. Growers are encouraged to align themselves with licensed marketing groupings which will assist in improving technical prowess in growing as well as creating the critical mass of product in the market place with associated commitment to quality and promotion.

The European marketing companies; Ceradini, OP Monte, MVM, Fruilikiwi, Felice and Convi are all BGIP licensees. BGIP will be implanting a Legal Origin Warranty system guaranteeing to the market that the fruit that they are purchasing is from legal growers

In order to deliver to the market excellent quality for the consumer, BGIP is also working closely with Italian, French, Greek and Portuguese growers to obtain conformity on production techniques, maturity indexing and post harvest storage of the variety. The University of Udine has recently published the results of storage trials that have been conducted over the past three seasons which show excellent storage results with the Soreli variety over a four - month storage period.

Soreli fruit was well received in several markets in addition to Europe such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and the USA.

Many young orchards will be coming into mature bearing this year which will result in the increase of the supply of Soreli volumes into the local and foreign markets.

BGIP also continues to promote the production of the variety in Chile, South Africa, Australia and Argentina for counter seasonal supply in the future.

For more information:
Peter Turner
BGIP b.v.
Email: peter@sorelikiwi.com
www.sorelikiwi.com