Latest News / Frequently Asked Questions: Changes to Fruit Testing
Frequently Asked Questions: Changes to Fruit Testing
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Changes to fruit testing, Kiwistart procurement and payments for 2020
Is fruit still being tested?
- The independent laboratory, Eurofins, will no longer sample or test fruit
- Post Harvest will be responsible for sampling and testing fruit with a 30 fruit sample
- Dry matter will not be tested
- Brix will be tested on 30 fruit sample
- Colour will be tested on 30 fruit sample for Gold 3 (up until 2nd April)
- Seed colour will be tested on 30 fruit sample for Green
What are the changes to kiwistart?
- Kiwistart changes are listed here
What happens to maturity clearances issued by Eurofins?
- Samples processed and finalised by Eurofins are under the existing maturity clearance criteria. No amendments will be made to these samples to adjust sizes cleared for dry
matter. It is the grower and their packhouse’s decision to harvest on these clearances, or retest under the packhouse maturity testing process.
What happens to manual clearances issued by Zespri?
- Because of the maturity clearance reporting issues, Zespri issued a large number of email confirmations of maturity clearance. Any maturity area harvested under these email
confirmations was harvested under the existing maturity clearance criteria. No amendments will be made to the latest sample for these maturity areas to adjust sizes cleared for dry
matter.
Can existing clearance testing results be used for the packhouse clearance process?
- Generally no. The existing clearance testing results are under the existing maturity clearance criteria. But: the exception to this is where the latest Eurofins maturity clearance sample has not been finalised and a manual clearance has not been issued by Zespri.; There were a number of maturity clearance samples that were collected on 23-24 March that were processed for brix and colour only (Gold) and brix and black seeds only (Green) that can be used for as evidence of clearance under the new packhouse clearance criteria. These samples will likely have the status “Tests In Progress” in Eurofins system.; This data can be used and will need to follow the new data interchange
requirements once released.
When can packhouse maturity testing commence?
- Immediately, however Zespri’s inventory system is not yet ready to receive packhouse clearance data and therefore not yet able to support packing based on packhouse clearance.
When can packing of packhouse maturity tested maturity areas commence?
- Once Zespri’s packhouse maturity testing EDI requirements are determined and tested.
More detailed information on this topic is available here
Updates on changes made to Maturity Testing for this season on the Canopy here