Mini-me kiwis are hair free

It's small, green and looks like a grape but bite into it and you're in for a surprise.

Slice one open and the inside looks just like a kiwifruit - only smaller.

In fact it's a kiwiberry - a close relative of the fruit formerly known as the Chinese gooseberry - and this month Geoff Oliver's workers will be grading and packing more than 30 tonnes of the tiny fruit for export.

This year, the Te Puke Fruitpackers Kiwi Produce director is exporting the fruit to nine markets including Germany, Britain, Australia, Japan and some other Asian countries.

Oliver has been in the kiwifruit industry for 20 years and started growing the small, hairless fruit four years ago. "It's ideal for us. We were looking for something different to grow and thought this is a similar crop that we can grow easily," he said.

He employs 35 workers, and up to 60 during the main season, at his Paengaroa pack house.

The team harvests 65 canopy hectares of kiwifruit and 3.5ha of kiwiberries, and packs for several other kiwiberry growers in the district.

Kiwiberries are harvested before kiwifruit, normally in late February or early March.

"It's a good little fill-in during the off-season," said Oliver. "We tend to harvest the crop one day and pack the next. It's hard, fiddly work."

Kiwiberries, themselves formerly known as arguta or baby kiwifruit, were becoming popular.

"It is a neat little niche product that has its place in the market."

Kiwiberries grow well in areas where the climate is suitable for growing Hayward green and gold kiwifruit.

There are four varieties of the tiny fruit: red, green and two Hort-Research varieties, K2D4 and C3C3.

The small berries weigh from 5g to 20g and have a smooth, edible skin.

They are best eaten when the fruit has darkened or softened otherwise they can taste a little tart, and are full of fibre, potassium, sodium, vitamins C, A and E, calcium, magnesium and iron.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)