When, in 1953, Te Puke orchardist Jim MacLoughlin sent 40 boxes of Chinese Gooseberries to England he marked the beginnings of today’s multi-million kiwifruit industry.

In sharp contrast to 65 years ago, the 123 million trays of kiwifruit exported in the 2017/2018 season generated a total revenue of $2.51 billion.

The industry today owes a debt of gratitude to Jim and other early pioneer growers who, often in the face of adversity, persevered with what was then a new and relatively unknown fruit, to pave the way for its current success.

The stories of those pioneers are to be recorded in a book commissioned by New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc. to mark its 25^th anniversary next year. Its author is former Coast & Country News editor, Elaine Fisher.

The project, which has already received funding support from several industry bodies and businesses, still has sponsorship opportunities available.

The purpose of the sponsorship is to fund the writing and production of the book and to provide a subsidised purchase price.

“This sponsorship will be a special opportunity for businesses’ names to be recorded alongside the founding pioneers of the kiwifruit industry. We expect that the book will become an important reference for the industry for many years into the future,” says NZKGI communications manager Mike Murphy.

The book will feature growers who first recognised the potential of the fruit and used their diverse skills to not only successfully grow kiwifruit commercially, but also to export and market it, and worked to set in place structures to provide the strong foundations of today’s successful industry.

Mike says the kiwifruit industry is relatively young and is fortunate to have many of its grower pioneers still alive. “However, some notable people have recently passed away such as Roly Earp and Mike Muller.

“NZKGI, representing kiwifruit growers, is in a unique position to capture the voices of kiwifruit grower pioneers. If this capturing of pioneer’s voices is delayed, they will be lost forever,” says Mike.

‘Pioneer growers’ are defined as those who were growing in the decades from the mid-to-late 1950s and onwards. Specifically, they are growers who were among the first to research and develop or apply a new area of knowledge, method or activity.

Elaine, who is also a former editor of the ‘Kiwifruit Journal', and an award-winning rural journalist, says work on research and writing the book is now well underway.

“While it has generally been men who have played leading public and political roles within the industry, most have worked in close partnership with their wives and partners to manage and grow their orcharding businesses and raise families,” says Elaine.

“This book is a chance to tell both sides of the stories of the inspirational growers who, through hard work and determination, often in the face of significant adversity, grew an industry from a relatively unknown ‘hairy brown fruit’ to become a national and international success story.”

Mike says while much has been written about the kiwifruit industry, such a book containing in-depth interviews does not yet exist and this is a unique opportunity for the industry to record the stories of its pioneers.

There are several different levels of sponsorship available for the book, each with limited availability based on a first in, first served principle.

The platinum sponsorship level has already been taken, however there are places available in the other sponsorship levels. There are a number of benefits for sponsoring the project, including brand exposure in the book, at the book launch, the book’s webpage and within marketing initiatives in the lead-up to the book’s completion.

 For further information about the book project please contact Mike Murphy at: info@nzkgi.org.nz