"Developing an assisted ripening technique that enables us to always supply fruit that is ready to eat and with a guaranteed minimum sugar content level (14° Brix) contributed to increasing consumption and making kiwis more available on the shelves of some leading Italian retail chains," reports Marco Eleuteri, sales manager for OP Armonia.

In just 4 years, the area the PO has allocated to kiwi cultivation has expanded from 70 to almost 150 hectares. "Although many orchards are still not in full production, we should be harvesting 2,500 tons of kiwis this year. Some are already grown with organic techniques and the rest is currently being converted, so much so that the entire production will be organic in two years time."

This season, most of the production will be sold a as part of the Premium DolceKiwi range which, this year, should represent approximately 60% of the entire OP Armonia turnover.

"We have been monitoring the product for a few years and we consider it far better than average. For this reason, we decided to conduct a study together with the Faculty of Agriculture in Potenza to verify whether we meet the requirements to apply for the PDO mark."