Zespri Italia expands its farming area

Zespri Italia is set to expand its production capacity, partly as a result of the current kiwi season.  “This year a pilot project has been set up to plant 200 new hectares of the sweeter green variety, G14, which will enable us to cover a slice of the market currently open,” said Riccardo Spinelli, tech transfer and development manager.  This is good news in the light of the 2016 year which is set to be a stable one.  “As for the yellow variety, we can say that it has been an early year, but the estimates we are getting indicate that we are on course to meet our established objectives: a medium-large size and a high level of dry matter.  Sadly, we cannot say the same for the Hayward variety, although there will always be the guarantee of Zespri quality thanks to the extra efforts we’ve invested,” Spinelli said.  The world kiwi market is large, and the Italian variety is among the most highly prized.  “At the moment we are still very much focused on Europe, particularly the northern and central countries like Germany and the Benelux countries, as well as Spain.  Now we are investing heavily in developing the Asian market in China, where there appears to be great potential,” Spinelli said.