While the fruit is harvesting early, all reports note that the yield looks about the same as last year. “The size should be a little bit smaller and also the shape of the kiwi should be more elongated than the past,” adds Forever Fresh’s Hernan Garces. “That’s because we got a better pollinization this year.”
Italians slowing down
Chilean kiwis are getting ready for import at a time when the Italian market seems to be wrapping up. “Some are saying they’ll go with Italian kiwi until April 20th or so. But volumes from Italy seem to be winding down and are getting a little shorter than in years past,” says Garces. “We know the Italian storage is down compared to last year but I don’t know by how much. And we also know that New Zealand is also down on green kiwi,” adds Myers.
Meanwhile when it comes to marketing the fruit, Forever Fresh is pushing to offer more preconditioned kiwi, which should be available in late April or early May. “The hardest part of marketing kiwis is making them more attractive,” says Garces.
“And similar to ripening avocados, you go shopping and buy green avocados and you can’t eat them for a week,” says Myers. “So similarly we’re looking at getting fruit that’s ready to eat in the marketplace so a consumer can take them home and eat that day. So we’re heavily pushing the preconditioned fruit. Our growers San Francisco lo Garces and Verfrut have specific blocks where certain agriculture practices are used to obtain a higher dry matter. Having a higher percentage of dry matter allows for higher brix thus allowing the fruit to maintain ready-to-eat pressures for an extended period.”
For more information:
Forever Fresh LLC
Evan Myers
Tel: +1-302-363-3322
Evan.myers@foreverfreshllc.com
Hernan Garces
Tel: +1-209-669-9667
HG@foreverfreshllc.com
http://www.foreverfreshllc.com/