Open Day
Open day held 27 February 2016 was attended by interested industry participants and potential investors who viewed the first two emerging selections of Fashion Foods plant breeding programme on the trees.
The plantings are located on a trial block on Redwood Orchards property, accessed via Redwood Valley Lane (turn off inland Moutere Highway – Motueka / Richmond – opposite Redwood Valley hall)
Harvest
Harvesting commenced shortly after the open day and was undertaken in two picks spaced about 10 days apart.
Post harvest treatment with Smartfresh TM was carried our at Thawley Orchard Co Mapua
Packing
Midland Packers of Motueka completed the first fruit packing into display trays on 26 May 2016 in the presence of Fashion Foods and a few invited observers.
Chinese interests placed an order for next year’s fruit and seek NZ growers to increase supply.
New Zealand National Farm Field days – Mystery Creek
At the invitation of Rabo Bank, Fashion Foods exhibited at the NZ National Farm Field days at Mystery Creek 15 – 18 June 2016 in RABO’s “paddock to Plate” showcase.. Over 10,000 samples were tested by visitors to the exhibition with overwhelming acclamation, citing striking different eye-catching visual appearance with strong appealing flavours.
NZ National Horticulture Field Day – Hastings
Fashion Foods will be providing awareness to NZ’s largest growing Region Hawkes Bay by exhibiting MONDAJU and BERICA at the National Hort field day on 8 July.
European interest
During August and September Fashion Foods has scheduled meetings in Europe to further explore and evaluate potential for production in the Northern Hemisphere.
South African and North American interest continues under consideration.
2016 Planting
A further 2500 trees propagated by Waimea Nurseries on CG 202 TM rootstock will be planted at the Redwood Orchards trial site in spring 2016. This will bring plantings at this site near to 10,000 trees about half of each MONDAJU and BERICA. A further 4000 test agreement graftings have been approved to date for Tasman growers.