New Zealand has made good ground when it comes to research and innovation but Australian Plant & Food Research initiatives are ripe for innovation, according to Dr Andrew Granger, General Manager (Science) with Plant & Food Research. Zespri kiwi fruit marketing, and the story of how it continued to develop the Sun Gold variety, which proved tolerant to the bacterial disease known as Psa, was one of a few success stories shared during the Plant & Research presentation at the PMA Fresh Connections Conference Day in Melbourne.
Thanks to continued investment, New Zealand growers will still export record numbers of gold kiwi fruit, 30 million trays, the audience heard. “Every year we save, contributes $100m to the kiwi industry,” said Dr Granger. Kiwi production in particular is an under exploited Australian opportunity, according to Dr Granger. “Kiwis in New Zealand are a $1bn export industry, but there’s lots of potential for growth in Australia. Similarly apples are grown worldwide. There’s virtually no export out of Australia,” Dr Granger said. Jazz apples and Moonlight potatoes also rated a mention.
The aim of Dr Granger’s work, and that of the other presenters, is broadly to combine market insight with a fundamental understanding of the biology of our food sources. That is done with a mind to three key considerations: consumer trends, climactic change – and more severe weather and temperature extremes around the globe, and rainfall.
Other successful innovations were covered, including raspberry breeding, and the Wakefield variety having huge success in the Pacific Northwest region of the US, where it has become the most sought after new raspberry variety. Glasshouse crops, including tomatoes, are also ripe for innovation, according to Dr Granger. Bioprotection, resistance to pests and viruses, and satisfying requirements for importing nations were key to each story. “It’s about value adding. How do new varieties interact with people?” he asked.
Ripening and postharvest tech facing 'challenges'
Following on from Dr Granger’s presentation, Drs Jocelyn Eason and Jason Johnston, also with Plant & Food research, discussed in more detail how ripening technology and techniques are improving shelf life, storage and overall quality and saleability of fresh produce, but there are key challenges to overcome as technology develops. Issues highlighted were the fact that consumers do not want produce that has been artificially ripened, the fact there will be no ‘one size fits all’ solution for sensing and storage technology, food safety and chemical use, and preservation of nutritional quality. The ability to measure nutritional quality will be particularly important, according to her. “In select cases it is as good at the end as it was at the start but it’s something we just don’t measure. We need to be able to measure that.”
Capsicums were one vegetable Dr Eason has been working with, and had success. “We’ve shown that sea freight is viable for New Zealand capsicums. We can achieve consistent five week storage if fruit is exceptionally cleaned before packed.” There is a delicate balance, however, she said. “The optimum conditions to solve one problem will create compromises for the other ones.” That was the dilemma that was solved by careful scientific analysis.
“There will be a greater demand for ripening technology,” Dr Eason confirmed. “The opportunity is there to deliver premium quality produce harvested immature and firm but allowing them to develop flavor, aroma, taste and colour in market.”
Determining the optimum time to harvest, postharvest storage and quality, was the focus of Dr Johnston’s presentation. He highlighted how technology used for apple growers could also be applied to help produce outstanding quality heirloom tomato crops, and assist growers. “High taste tomatoes – absolutely you could be applying these technologies there. Taste is a really big opportunity for these sorts of technologies,” he told the audience.
As with all commodities, however, rainfall would always present an issue, and forecasting harvest was an area where Dr Johnston said more knowledge was needed. It can be particularly hard to identify the cause when apples from two orchards right near each other breakdown at different rates, for example. “Breakdown causes a lot of direct losses,” he explained, as exporters can be liable for costs involved in dumping product that is not accepted, and their reputations can suffer as a result. “The good news is that with good post harvest handling you can control these to some degree,” he reminded the audience. “We can measure routinely 600 different metabolites in fruit, for example sugars and acids. There’s so much more in fruit than just those though.” Extracting data is key, he said. “We can actually remove a lot of the information that’s not critical and get some very big needles within the haystack. We can actually find some targets.”
For more information
To view details or contact the organization:
Visit the Plant & Food Research New Zealand website: http://www.plantandfood.co.nz
Or the Plant & Food Research Australia website: http://www.plantandfood.com.au