The arrival firmness of Zespri kiwifruit naturally varies throughout the season and also is dependent on your position in the supply chain. The closer the fruit is to the end customer the softer it needs to be, this is to ensure we achieve our end goal of ensuring it reaches the consumer in a Ready to Eat state.
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The Southern Hemisphere kiwifruit season runs from mid-April through to December. Early season kiwifruit (also referred to as KiwiStart fruit) is picked at the very start of the season, once the fruit has reached a mature state but whilst the fruit is still very firm and sour to eat. At this point in the season the fruit's firmness can be highly variable.
To ensure Zespri Kiwifruit gives consumers the best eating experience throughout the year, this KiwiStart fruit is conditioned (ripened) to a Ready to Retail state as it is transported to market. This process uses elevated temperatures, and sometimes ethylene, to ripen the fruit and means Zespri Kiwifruit has time to develop the characteristic texture and flavours of a premium Ready to Eat Zespri Kiwifruit. As the season progresses the fruit naturally ripens and the variability reduces.
The graph below shows how the arrival firmness of Zespri SunGold and Zespri Green kiwifruit gradually reduces throughout the season*.
*Note - As Zespri kiwifruit is a natural product there will always be a considerable amount of variation from fruit to fruit and grower line to grower line.
Continually assessing and reorganising your inventory is vital step in minimising fruitloss particularly when your stock is moving slower than planned. Assessment records can be very useful in understanding the ripening curves of kiwifruit and how different treatments impact these curves. Below is quick guide to inventory management which may assist you in determining what course of action to take once you're aware of how firm your fruit is.
Depending on your overall fruit quality, your customers’ requirements and your position in the supply chain you will need to decide what action to take. The process starts with completing frequent assessments on your inventory, depending on the firmness results and the facilities available to you, you can choose to deliver, continue to store, or to start ripening your fruit.
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Firm Fruit |
Condition fruit to meet retail or storage requirements. [[link to slide-bar graphic showing windows for fruit at alternative levels of firmness]] |
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Ready to Retail Fruit |
Maintain optimal temperature for the variety before delivery. [[link to slide-bar graphic showing alternative options for storage temperature for all varieties fruit at differing levels of firmness]] |
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Fruit in Storage |
Group fruit in your entire inventory according to relative risk and make sure pallets that have a visual corner board indicator KS (and followed by KM) are moved first, unless you need to give priority to fully softened lines. Maintain fruit at optimal storage temperature until delivery (by variety). |
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If fruit requires reworking |
Repacking improves value of marginal lines. Use your quality control system and ensure staff understand your requirements to minimise fruit loss. |
Confirm quality and flesh temperatures before loading out product. Always handle fruit with care to avoid damage. Maintain traceability so that any quality issue can be tracked back to a pallet and linked with the history of the pallet.
In-store presentation is the final step to manage before the fruit reaches consumers.
Managing fruit display will not only improve consumers' shopping and eating experience, but is likely to increase your sales rate. This section will guide you in how to optimise your fruit on-shelves.
In the retail store, place kiwifruit in a prominent position with other mainstream fast-moving fruits. Once ripened, kiwifruit produce their own ethylene. Placing ripe kiwifruit on a retail shelf next to ethylene-producing fruit is not a concern.
To avoid fruit damage and maintain traceability, try to leave the fruit in its packaging for retail presentation. If it is supermarket policy to mount fruit for display, then layer fruit no more than 4–6 deep and check fruit quality frequently.
Rotating the softest fruit to the front of the display increases sales of ready-to-eat fruit and minimises shrinkage.
Try selling Zespri Kiwifruit at a firmness that is ready-to-eat or only marginally above to optimise the consumer eating experience and repeat sales. Support sales by serving in-store ready-to-eat samples.