Kiwifruit company Zespri has started pre-commercial trials of Italian-grown red kiwifruit in a limited number of stores in Belgium, Fruitnet informs.
The group’s newest kiwifruit variety, RubyRed, is now in its third year of commercial production.
According to Zespri, its New Zealand-grown fruit has created a lot of excitement during early trials in other markets, among consumers that are drawn the sweet berry-tinged taste.
Read also: Mice cause havoc on ship carrying 1.2m trays of Zespri kiwifruit to Europe
The variety has a shorter shelf-life than Zespri SunGold and Zespri Green, however. So to date Zespri has prioritised its Asian markets, given the shorter marine transit times from New Zealand.
But the potential for RubyRed to make a splash in Europe is very real, it says.
“We know there’s strong demand in our other markets for red, including in Europe, and we’ve had growing trials underway here, with a limited red crop grown in Italy,” said Steven Martina, president of Zespri Europe.
“We’re now entering the second phase of our trial and this fall this we will carry out pre-commercial testing in Belgium of the red fruit produced in Italy to capture consumer insights to support the potential introduction of Zespri Red in Europe.”
He added: “Given the limited amount of fruit, we’ve opted for a small scale trial in a limited number of stores in Belgium, which also allows our teams to closely monitor the trial.”
The red fruit will only be available in pre-packs during October.
The use of the site materials is free if there is a direct and open for search engines hyperlink to a specific publication of the East-Fruit.com website.
