Development Of Two Kiwi Fruit Varieties Kicks Off

NKP from Cesena and Rivoira from Verzuolo signed an agreement last week calling for NKP’s granting of the exclusive rights to Rivoira for the commercial development on a global level of two varieties, obtained from a common breeding project carried out by the University of Udine and NKP.

To date, this regards two yellow pulp varieties, one of which is long conservation and the other of which is early harvesting, with strong resilience against bacterial canker (KBC), one of today’s major problems facing producers in Europe and in the world. The University of Udine has placed this issue at the centre of its study in the common breeding project.

“The opportunities for this yellow pulp kiwi project are enormous,” Marco Rivoira, CEO of the Piedmont company said. “When we know that Italy alone has lost thousands of hectares of green kiwi systems and even more of the yellow kiwi due to bacterial canker and die-off.”

According to Pierfranco Quaranta, Chairman of NKP: “For the five partners who founded NKP back in 2008, this is a historical moment. The agreement signed today with RIVOIRA will launch a new global dimension of our yellow kiwi breeding and selection work which we have pursued for years with the University of Udine.”

“Consumer demand for yellow kiwi is growing globally, while production is unable to keep pace because of the agronomic difficulties, but with this project, and with these selected and readily available new varieties for commercial systems, we believe we have a real answer for growers,” continues Quaranta.

Marco Rivoira says: “The significant strength of our offering is having two varietal selections available to producers, which provide real and immediate answers to agronomic challenges the industry is facing, combined with a superior quality and shelf-life.”

The NKP Chairman concludes: “We are moving ahead with innovative new selections of yellow varieties: the future of our Project.”