Italy's Ministry of Agriculture recently signed a decree aimed at improving the overall quality of the country's kiwifruit by preventing premature harvesting.

Alessandro Fornari

Jingold general manager and Kiwifruit of Italy Consortium president Alessandro Fornari told www.freshfruitportal.com the action confirmed the fact that most of the national industry 'agreed on the need to provide consumers with a high-quality, controlled and suitably ripe product'.

"We think this goal was achieved also thanks to the efforts of our Consortium and it is a great opportunity to raise the Italian kiwifruit image and discourage the "usual suspects" from bringing the harvest forward, releasing on the market poor quality fruits and damaging the whole sector," Fornari said.

"We look forward to seeing how the controls will be implemented by the authorities, as this is a key point for the correct application of the new standard.

"We also think some quality parameters should be reassessed together with the retailers; low values of fruit firmness should be accepted in order to provide a more ripen kiwifruit to the consumers, that is also a clear indication within the ministry's approved protocol."

Some growers are reported to be unhappy with the decree, saying it unfairly discriminates against early harvesters and means Italy's quality parameters will be imposed on other countries who may not want the same requirements.

Season shaping up well

The Kiwifruit of Italy Consortium also recently launched an online Ripening Monitoring System (RMS), whereby anyone can follow the development of the fruit's Brix levels and firmness in all of the country's various growing regions.

"The first checks have been carried out by our consortium, within the frame of the RMS, since the beginning of October," Fornari said.

"These have shown that the ripening process of Hayward kiwifruit was very much following the same evolution as that of last year. A general delay in ripening was expected and this fact has been confirmed by the parameters measured at the harvesting time.

"In the northern regions, the harvesting started on week 43 onwards, and one or two weeks after in the southern regions. Quality at harvesting time was looking good with good dry matter content. Total national production estimates were forecast at more or less the same as last year."

He added most exporters were currently more focused on overseas destinations, given the competition by cheaper Greek kiwifruit in the European market. An increase in the pace of sales is expected from mid-December onwards.

www.freshfruitportal.com