With the gold variety the main criteria is the colour, the brix and the dry matter, for the green variety it is brix, dry matter and black seeds.
This packing shed has 3 grading lines
Click here to a photo report of the packhouses
Annmarie Lee, General Manager of Growers at Seeka, New Zealand's biggest grower of Kiwifruit, said it had been a trying season. “Some growers are struggling to get the dry matter levels, if they don't have the right levels the fruit may not be accepted as class I, significantly reducing the incomes for those growers.
Sunday 21st of May saw the first night of three frosts in Te Puke which spurred on growers, who had been waiting for the dry matter levels to increase, to get the fruit in off the vines before further bouts of frost. The first frost won't harm the kiwifruit as the canopy provides protection but it causes the canopy to brown and vines to go into 'winter mode' so the fruit must be harvested before more frosts hit.
The pickers need to place the fruit in their baskets, not drop it in as this can cause bruising on the fruit
Green volumes of kiwifruit from New Zealand will be significantly down this year a big change from last year where Zespri dumped fruit. A larger size profile will help but yields will be significantly reduced. Dry matter levels may also reduce the amount of fruit passed for Class I to be exported by Zespri. For some growers this will be a big problem as there is no other marketing opportunity for the Zespri Gold variety.
With Zespri as the only exporter or seller of kiwifruit to countries other than Australia and New Zealand, growers will have little choice but to receive significantly lower incomes. In previous years the fruit would have been sold.
"The big fruit also means different export destinations have to be found as not all markets will take the big sizes, this is an area where Zespri can help growers."
There are jumbo gold kiwifruit packed in single layer trays, this has a been a season of particularly big fruit
Normally the size would average around 32, but this year it is packing at around an average of size 29 with a large proportion of the fruit in the large 22 and 25 size.
As for the issue of low dry matter in the fruit, Seeka have invested in NIR technology in one packhouse to try to increase the volumes of Gold fruit passed. According to Paul Crone, site manager at Oakside, it helps, but its not the perfect solution some growers thought it would be.
The blue box! Seeka is known for its blue boxes, this the new season boxes with all new Seeka branding
"This method of testing dry matter is very new and the scanner has be told what to look for and this can only be done by running fruit under the cameras, which is very time consuming. Nevertheless it will help us get more fruit through and exported as Class I which will give the growers higher returns."
When the kiwifruit is packed it is trucked over to cold stores at the nearby Port of Tauranga, New Zealand's biggest port. The port is working with Zespri and Tauranga Kiwifruit Logistics (TKL) under a new 10-year freight agreement to develop additional infrastructure to handle the kiwifruit exports. Kiwifruit exports handled by the port increased 22.9 per cent to 413,102 tonnes for the six months to December 2015, compared with the previous corresponding period.
For more information:
For more information:Annmarie Lee
Seeka
Tel: +64 21 766 244
Email: Annmarie.Lee@seeka.co.nz
www.seeka.co.nz