New technology and improved industry communication could help Italian kiwifruit growers harvest their crops at the optimum time to enhance overall quality and increase competitiveness.

A new method being developed by the University of Bologna will use infrared sensors to scan the fruit while it is still on the tree and provide producers with important information on its ripeness.

Kiwifruit of Italy president Alessandro Fornari told www.freshfruitportal.com the technology had been under research for two years now and would likely improve the quality of fruit while saving growers both time and money.

"In these two years, together with the University of Bologna, we have identified some orchards throughout Italy and we are checking the application of these instruments to see whether they are suitable for predicting the best harvesting times," Fornari said.

He added Kiwifruit of Italy was developing the instrument to be used with all kiwifruit varieties.

"Currently growers have to take fruit from the field, send it to a lab, take the measurements, get the report back, and on the basis of the report you decide if the fruit is ripe or not," Fornari said

"To do this you lose a lot of time and resources, and economically it's quite expensive.

"Also every time you do this you have to take some samples from the field and often they are not representative of the whole crop because often you can only take a few.

"With the new technology the process will be easier because we can check the fruit while it is still on the plant, and for this reason the inspector can check more fruit."

Fornari said although all producers could potentially use the technology in the future as extensive training was not necessary, he expected most instruments would be owned by the grower associations who would visit the farms before harvest to take readings.

Along with the new technology, Kiwifruit of Italy has also been improving its communication with growers through various means including promotional campaigns, a recently published list of 10 'Quality Commandments', and an open database on its website providing market forecasts, updated information on best ripening practices for each region, and expected harvest times.

"Sometimes the harvest is done too early because the producers are not informed about the process of ripening the fruit, and this way the process would be encouraging them to look for the best ripening period," said Fornari.

"The reality is it's not a big change itself because it's just a substitution of traditional methods of protecting the fruit's ripening. It's just an improvement of the industry, I would say, rather than a change."

Italy is the second largest kiwifruit producer in the world, second only to China, and in 2013 recorded a year-of-year increase of 6% to 425,000 metric tons (MT)

Around 70% of the country's total crop is exported, principally to neighboring EU countries like Germany, but Fornari said the percentage of kiwifruit sent to non-European countries is steadily growing.

The main export destinations outside of the continent include North America and Brazil, alongside emerging markets like the Middle East and Asia.

After phytosanitary protocols were signed, shipments to countries such as China and South Korea have been seeing a gradual increase, and Fornari said breaking down trade barriers in countries that offer an important outlet for kiwifruit production is a priority for Italy to 'further increase the presence of its products in global markets'.

Fornari also said the European market was not very strong for kiwifruit at the moment due to an overproduction of summerfruit like stonefruit and melons.

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