Ardgour Valley Orchards director Sharon Kirk, of Wānaka, said she was part of the syndicate to invest in five new varieties of apricots released by Plant & Food two years ago.
Plant & Food spent 20 years developing the varieties in Clyde, breeding a sweet, juicy flavour and bright orange colour, Mrs Kirk said.
When she and her husband Ross tried the apricots for the first time in 2018 they decided: "We have to share these with the world".
Mrs Kirk was the director of grower co-operative NZ Summerfresh Ltd, which holds the licence to distribute the new varieties.
The board decided on the names of the five new varieties — Summer Blaze, Summer Charm, Summer Desire, Summer Passion and Summer Spark.
"I call it the ‘summer love’ series."
Summer Spark was harvested before Christmas and its name was a nod to it being the first variety to be picked and summer romances start with a spark, she said.
The next variety to be harvested will be Summer Desire, which will be picked later this month.
Summer Blaze would be the last variety harvested next month or early March depending on the weather, she said.
The order of the varieties to be harvested — Spark, Desire, Charm, Passion and the Blaze — matched the stages of a summer romance, she said.
The apricots will be marketed under the brand Temptation Valley.
"We are taking a massive risk because they’ve never been grown commercially before."
The learning curve to producing the fruit was steep and exciting, she said.
She believed the varieties had the potential to revitalise waning consumer interest in apricots.
Two of the varieties contain an ethylene-recessive gene which extends shelf life, making them ideal for exporting.
About 50ha of the new apricots varieties are being grown on about 20 orchards in New Zealand, mostly in CentralOtago.
Of those, about half of then are grown on Ardgour Valley Orchards in Tarras, about 30km north of Cromwell, making it the biggest producer of the new crop.
The orchard is about 4km inside the boundary of the more than 3000ha sheep and beef property Ardgour Station.
Station owners Bruce and Linda Jolly and the Kirks are the biggest shareholders in Ardgour Valley Orchards, which also grows cherries.
There are a dozen other shareholders, Mrs Kirk said.
The first trees on the orchard were planted in 2020.
Reflective material was installed three weeks before Christmas between some rows of apricots this season to expose the fruit to more light.
"It is to try and get the underside of the fruit coloured up."
A packhouse is being built on the orchard and is expected to be operational soon.
About 150 tonnes of Temptation Valley apricots from the orchard will be harvested this season.
"This is more than double the volume produced last season."
The production spike is due to tree age and ideal conditions during the blossoming and fruit-set period.
About 100 tonnes of the apricots will be exported.
The apricots can not be exported to China due there being no biosecurity protocol for apricots.
A proposal to get a protocol to get New Zealand apricots to China was being worked on, Mrs Kirk said.
"We are hopeful."
She has been exhibiting at international trade shows to spread the word on the new varieties.
The biggest challenge of launching a new fruit variety was convincing buyers to trust you could deliver them a variety of apricot better than any other kind they had tasted, she said.
"You deliver it and people go ‘wow’ and then ask how much they can have."
The apricots will be available domestically at Costco in Auckland and from the Temptation Valley website.
She is working to get the apricots in to other New Zealand supermarkets.
"You need volume to supply those guys — they’re not interested in one tonne, they want 15 tonnes a week for four weeks."
She believes there is potential to quadruple the amount of the apricots being produced by Ardgour Valley Orchards.
Before that happens, demand for the fruit needs to be created to prove the concept before exploring if there is an appetite for further investment.
"It is not something you can develop overnight."
Capital for the orchard was raised in 2020 and a returns is due to investors in 2027.
"Horticulture is a long-term investment."
