“Our strategic focus is to establish business bases in China and Japan and have a strong presence in Asia. We want to invest in the development of new varieties of kiwifruit. We are interested in the intellectual property side of the business. Currently, most of the kiwifruit grown and marketed in Western countries is the old New Zealand Hayward variety. There are better tasting varieties being developed that can become far more relevant on a global scale because most of the kiwifruit producing countries outside New Zealand generally have hotter and dryer climates in the principal regions that kiwifruit is grown,” says Murray Malone of Miko Asia.
Miko Asia is the marketing branch of New Zealand companies Maketu Estates Limited and KSL Services Limited. Both are private family businesses owned by brothers Colin and Ross Stevenson, who have grown kiwifruit in New Zealand for many years.
Professor Zhongyan Wang of Changsha Yanoon BioTech
“One of the breeding programmes we are looking at is the breeding programme of Changsha Yanoon BioTech Co., Ltd. in Hunan, China, which has significant potential. It is the biggest kiwifruit breeding programme in China and is led by Professor Zhongyan Wang, who spent considerable time in New Zealand. China is the biggest producer of kiwifruit in the world, and the fruit is endemic to the country. There are very diversified kiwifruit germplasm resources in China, which offer a range of new cultivar development opportunities”.
Yanoon has developed a number of new kiwifruit varieties, including green-, yellow- and red-fleshed varieties. Their new green-fleshed varieties are much sweeter and superior to the old Hayward variety.
“The Yanoon kiwifruit breeding programme is also developing new kiwifruit rootstocks that can withstand water and tolerate drought. I have seen kiwifruit plants on the new rootstocks in rice paddies. They have huge potential for plantations in Chile, California and Italy which have different climates than New Zealand. We are involved in relationships with customers of Yanoon in China. One company has just developed 300 hectares of new varieties in the Hubei province. We have brought some of their staff to New Zealand for training purposes. We are also involved with another company that will start planting next winter. We will export the fruit for them to Southeast Asia and potentially Europe”.
Yanoon has developed a number of new kiwifruit varieties, including green-, yellow- and red-fleshed varieties.
New Yanoon BioTech kiwifruit research centre
“Our first and foremost breeding objective is fruit quality, followed by drought and heat tolerance. In most kiwifruit growing regions of China, summer temperatures easily reach 40ºC, our new kiwifruit varieties can flourish under these circumstances. High yield, good storability and disease resistance are also an important selection criteria of our breeding programme,” says Professor Zhongyan Wang of Yanoon BioTech. “Three of our first new varieties are being commercialized by big kiwifruit producers in China. We are also receiving a lot of interest from overseas companies".
"Our new kiwifruit research station is currently being established at JinJing close to Changsha. It will be one of the most significant of its type in the world. Incorporating an extensive orchard with modern support facilities, it will provide our kiwifruit breeding programme with much greater resources and eventually providing consumers globally with a better range of superior tasting kiwifruit.”
More information:
Murray Malone
GM Miko Asia Ltd
Tel: +64 21 854812
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.mikoasia.com
Professor Zhongyan Wang
Changsha Yanoon BioTech Co., Ltd.
Tel: +86 731 84692279
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.yanoonbiotech.com
