Kiwifruit production and research in Spain
2018
Gallego, P. P.
Kiwifruit culture started in Spain in 1969, when the Galician visionary entrepreneur and businessman Jose Fernández López founded the first kiwifruit company named Productores de Actinidia Chinensis SA. He was also the first orchardist, who purchased his first vines (100 plants) of 'Hayward' in France. The first exports were to Germany, because nobody in Spain knew the fruit and the price was so high (around €0.60 per fruit). Later, in the 1980s, kiwifruit production increased quickly from 45 to 357 ha, and what was more important for kiwifruit market, more than 10,000 t were imported from New Zealand. This awakened the interest of a few more business people to the kiwifruit industry, due to huge demand and high prices of kiwifruit. Following them, many small fruit producers replaced apple and citrus orchards with kiwifruit, reaching a total production of 21,000 t and importation of 160,000 t today. In this review, I will describe in detail the history of the consumption and production of kiwifruit, the main areas of production, the main cultivar, the production systems, orchard management (conventional, integrated and organic), phytosanitary problems (pest and diseases), the characteristics of the kiwifruit industry, and also the untold story of the research done in Spanish research centres and universities since the 1990s.
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