New types of apricot hit market

Roxburgh orchardist Simon Donaldson with the Nzsummer2 apricots for sale at the Otago Farmers...
Roxburgh orchardist Simon Donaldson with the Nzsummer2 apricots for sale at the Otago Farmers Market on Saturday. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON
They are big, colourful and boy do they taste nice.

Now all they seem to need is a decent name.

Last September, the NZ Summer Fresh company announced plans to commercialise the first three new apricot cultivars released by Plant & Food Research after nearly two decades of research and development.

Twenty growers, a mix of long-standing summer-fruit producers and newer growers, are trialling the varieties under licence in New Zealand.

Some are being grown in Central Otago. Bred for flavour, colour and sensory characteristics, the apricots are said to substantially better than nearly every other apricot grown around the world.

One of the advantages of the three new varieties — which have been named Nzsummer2, Nzsummer3 and Nzsummer4 — is they ripen at different times from current apricots.

The traditional New Zealand apricot season is from early January to early-mid February.

Dumbarton orchardist Simon Donaldson has two of the three varieties planted and sold the first batch of apricots — Nzsummer4 — earlier in the season, before Christmas.

The latest batch — Nzsummer2 — were now on sale and proving to be very popular at the Otago Farmers Market, he said.

"They are big and juicy and have all the colour you need in an apricot.

"It has been a long time coming but they seem to be worth it.

"They’re very popular. I just put as many cases into the truck and they all sell out."

He had about 500 trees on his orchard of the varieties. The trees started delivering fruit after three years and his trees were now five years old.

He said the Nzsummer2 variety’s season would last for another couple of weeks, possibly into the middle of March.

"Hopefully, it will lead into the resurgence of apricots.

"There are definitely promising signs and that can only grow as there is more demand for them."

They had stood up to the vagaries of the Central Otago climate.

"We had some quite severe frosts in September and there was snow on the ground.

"Some of these trees had 15 hours of water on them that day so they have proved themselves."

NZ Summer Fresh company chairman Stephen Darling said the names of the new apricot brands were not yet decided.

Otago Daily Times readers had offered various names and Mr Darling said he appreciated all the suggestions.

But the group had decided to wait a while to find names.

A tough spring had an impact on the cosmetic finish of the apricot and it was not as good as they wanted, but overall the new varieties were a good size and had plenty of flavour.

He was looking forward to next season, when more product of the three varieties would be available.

stephen.hepburn@odt.co.nz

 

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