Sorry, New Zealand: Agricultural office lauds quality of Taiwan kiwis

Taipei, Nov. 10 (CNA) Despite their limited production, Taiwanese kiwifruits have a sweetness and delicate texture that comes from being harvested closer to ripeness than their imported counterparts, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said Monday.

In a news release, the MOA's Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station said locally-grown kiwis start coming into season in mid-September, but often sell out quickly due to their limited quantity.

In Taiwan, kiwi has to be grown at an elevation of at least 1,000 meters, in mountainous areas such as Miaoli's Dahu Township, Hsinchu's Jianshi Township and Taichung's Lishan, the office said.

Because of the cool climate kiwifruits grow in, many farmers opt to use little or even no pesticides or fertilizer on their vines, the statement said.

According to the agricultural office, Taiwan's kiwis are harvested when they are 90 percent or even fully ripe, while imported kiwis have to be picked when only 70-80 percent ripe so that they can ripen during shipping.

This later harvest gives Taiwan's kiwis 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 kiwis are sometimes still slightly hard when they reach the market.

In such cases, kiwis can be placed in a paper bag with bananas or other fruits that release ethylene, in order to hasten the ripening process, the office said.

In general, such fruits will ripen completely in one to three days, and they can then be stored in the refrigerator for up to one to two weeks, the news release said.

According to MOA statistics, Taiwan produced 133 metric tons of kiwi last year and imported 30,000 metric tons, mostly from New Zealand, but also from Italy, China, the United States, France and Japan.

Taiwan-grown kiwis remain more expensive than imports because of their limited quantity, but efforts are being made to expand production, Chung Kuo-hsiung (鍾國雄), deputy head of the Miaoli agricultural extension office, told CNA.