Sep 27, 2026 · 12 min · 8 segments
Berries are booming on the global stage - and NZ punches above its weight when it comes to production of blueberries and boysenberries. Behind the winning varieties of the fruit, are scientists like…
So instead of having one plant, One plant for this future variety, you propagate and you will have 50 plants, let's say, and then you do trial with these 50 plants.
Essentially, the fruit of those 50 plants are trialled for different metrics, fruit sweetness, firmness, colour and look, and a whole lot of other factors to determine how well it would do in the market.
If growers like it, it ticks all the boxes, then it becomes a commercial variety.
And that whole process, if things go well, it takes at least 10 years if everything
Why do we need so many varieties, though? Because you need to accommodate a longer window.
For instance, for blueberries, ideally you would want to have blueberries year-round, right? Why? Why? Because it doesn't grow in nature through the year, though, right? Correct, yes.
so you need to accommodate different ripening windows harvest windows shelf life and all that sort of things so that you can grow everything everywhere and everything can be consumed everywhere and nowadays That's why New Zealand is quite special because it's quite isolated place and we don't have that much import of fruit from other countries so we are still quite seasonal.
But New Zealand is very special in that it has a unique combination of day length and temperature that it's not very frequent in other places in the world.
So instead of having one plant, One plant for this future variety, you propagate and you will have 50 plants, let's say, and then you do trial with these 50 plants.
Essentially, the fruit of those 50 plants are trialled for different metrics, fruit sweetness, firmness, colour and look, and a whole lot of other factors to determine how well it would do in the market.
If growers like it, it ticks all the boxes, then it becomes a commercial variety.
And that whole process, if things go well, it takes at least 10 years if everything
Why do we need so many varieties, though? Because you need to accommodate a longer window.
For instance, for blueberries, ideally you would want to have blueberries year-round, right? Why? Why? Because it doesn't grow in nature through the year, though, right? Correct, yes.
so you need to accommodate different ripening windows harvest windows shelf life and all that sort of things so that you can grow everything everywhere and everything can be consumed everywhere and nowadays That's why New Zealand is quite special because it's quite isolated place and we don't have that much import of fruit from other countries so we are still quite seasonal.
But New Zealand is very special in that it has a unique combination of day length and temperature that it's not very frequent in other places in the world.
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