"China: "Upcoming Northern kiwifruit fills market gaps"

"The difference in climate between northern and southern China is rather large. That is why the kiwi characteristics and harvest time are also different. In the past few years, apart from kiwifruit from the five largest production areas in the south and middle of China, which are as Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Henan, kiwfruit from northern China is quickly emerging. The production quantity has been growing year after year," explains Ms. Zhang Hongshu from Qingdao Feng Heyuan Ecological Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd.

"Our production fields are located on the western coast of Huangdao district in Qingdao, Shandong. They are 206 hectares (2060 mu), of which kiwis take up around 150 hectares (1500 mu). The majority are grown in the open air. We produce red, yellow and green kiwis. Our kiwis are sold under our brand "Demetor" through traditional sales channels (80%) and e-commerce platforms (20%) to distributors and communities in first and second tier cities in China."

"This year, the weather is rather stable. There is not a lot of extreme weather. Moreover, we strictly manage our kiwi production quantity. That is why our production quantity will most likely be similar to that of last year. The price for ecological and organic kiwis is around 10 yuan per piece. This price will not fluctuate much."

"Compared to kiwis from the south, the advantages of Shandong are very obvious. Firstly, the harvesting of Shandong kiwifruit starts rather late. Because of the weather, the production season usually starts in September and ends in November. This is around half a month later than in the south, so it fills a market gap. Furthermore, Shandong, and especially Qingdao, has a unique latitude and a maritime climate. These are beneficial natural factors that make for high quality kiwis and a unique taste."

"When producing kiwis, the biggest influences are the weather, and plant diseases and insect pests. To strictly control the quality of our kiwis, we use natural, smart, ecological production methods. We only use livestock manure, weeds and straw, mixing those with twigs, as an organic fertilizer. While using this regularly on our fields, we also do interplanting. Namely, we plant Chinese toons, castor-oil plants, marigold, lavender, rapes and straw in our fields. This creates an ecological balance. Moreover, when the weeds in our grass fields have reached a certain height, we use a returning-to-field machine to maintain the ecological, natural production environment. In order to prevent plant diseases and insect pests, we have a team that implements several protection methods, such as hanging insecticide lamps, placing worm traps, and keeping chickens and geese to eat insects."

"Currently, the most popular variety are yellow kiwis. After working hard for the past few years, we now have seven different varieties of kiwis, such as Jinjing (yellow), Feng Heyuan One (red) and Cui Xiang (green). In order to make a breakthrough in our breeding, we not only have a long term collaboration with many Chinese research institutions, and established our own technological team at our fields, led by high technology experts, but our technological experts also regularly go to kiwi production areas, such as New Zealand and Italy, to inspect and learn, so we can increase our expert knowledge. I believe that we will develop even further in the future, so we can let even more consumers taste different kinds of kiwis."

Zhang Hongshu

Website: www.sdfhy.com

Phone: +86 157 5321 9272

Email: qdfengheyuan@163.com