Well-Managed Soil: The Key To High-Yielding Gold Kiwifruit

Production of the long-term, high-yielding and high-value gold kiwifruit is still in its infancy in South Africa. An important lesson learned by local pioneering grower Peter Nicholson is to have healthy soils for strong vine growth and fruit set. He shares his tips with Lloyd Phillips.

- Lloyd Phillips

It was just over two years ago that Farmer’s Weekly first published a story on the early stages of Peter Nicholson’s pioneering foray into gold kiwifruit production in South Africa. At that stage, Roselands Farm in KwaZulu-Natal’s temperate Richmond area had only 10ha of immature three-year-old gold kiwifruit orchards under hail netting. Nicholson was then expecting a yield of between 1t/ha and 2t/ha from his first harvest, a figure far below the yields of up to 70t/ha being achieved in some of New Zealand’s established commercial orchards.

Nicholson, who has persisted with his vision to become a successful commercial gold kiwifruit producer in South Africa, is hoping to harvest 20t/ ha in March from his five-year-old orchards.

The international demand for gold kiwifruit far outstrips international supply, so farm gate prices can be exceptionally profitable,” he says. “In 2018, the average back-on-farm return for New Zealand gold kiwifruit growers was NZ$138 000/ ha (about R1,3 million/ha).”

Another attraction for Nicholson was that once his existing and planned gold kiwifruit orchards reached optimal production, he could begin exporting during the annual February and March lull in international gold kiwifruit supply, thereby achieving top prices for his fruit, particularly in Europe and Asia.

He explains that South Africa’s longitude in relation to New Zealand, which is currently the Southern Hemisphere’s only major gold kiwifruit producer, opens this four- to 12-week window for South African gold kiwifruit growers to harvest and export their fruit during the global undersupply.