Taiwan grown kiwifruit is more expensive than imports because of their limited quantity, but have a sweetness and delicate texture that comes from being harvested closer to ripeness than their foreign counterparts, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday.
Efforts are being made to expand production of locally grown kiwifruit, Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station Deputy Director Chung Kuo-hsiung (鍾國雄) said in a statement.
The fruit starts coming into season in mid-September, but often sells out quickly due to limited quantity, the branch office of the agriculture said.
Photo courtesy of the Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station
In Taiwan, kiwifruit is grown at an elevation of at least 1,000m in mountainous areas such as Miaoli County’s Dahu Township (大湖), Hsinchu County’s Jianshih Township (尖石) and Taichung’s Lishan (梨山), the office said.
Because of the cool climate kiwifruits grow in, many farmers opt to use little or no pesticides or fertilizer on their vines, it said.
Taiwan’s kiwifruit are harvested when they are 90 percent or even fully ripe, while imported kiwis have to be picked when only 70 to 80 percent ripe so that they can ripen during shipping, it said.
The later harvest gives Taiwan’s kiwifruit a higher sugar content, making them sweeter, and also produces a more delicate texture and balanced sweet-sour flavor, the office said.
Because local harvesting times and shipping practices vary, Taiwanese kiwifruit are sometimes slightly hard when they reach the market, it said.
In such cases, they can be placed in a paper bag with bananas or other fruit that release ethylene, hastening the ripening process, it added.
In general, the harder kiwifruits would ripen completely in one to three days, and they can then be stored in the refrigerator for up to one to two weeks, the statement said.
Taiwan produced 133 tonnes of kiwifruit last year and imported 30,000 tonnes, mostly from New Zealand, but also from Italy, China, the US, France and Japan, ministry data showed.
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