TSUNO, Oct. 9 — A firm with New Zealand’s capital has made its first harvest of kiwifruit in southern Japan. That could create a successful grower business and the long-term benefit in a marginal and ageing community.
Mikiwi, the Japanese subsidiary of the New Zealand investment company, has partnered with Japanese growers to grow kiwifruit in Tsuno town, Miyazaki prefecture.
It invested 360 million yen to produce 6.4 hectares of kiwifruit in 2014.
The New Zealand investor said at a press conference on Oct. 8 that it expects between 40 and 45 tons of kiwifruit in Japan, with revenue of 14 million yen for this fiscal year ending in March 2018.
It is set to expand to a several hundred hectares of kiwifruit in total in the future, but didn’t disclose details.