The benefit of Kiwifruit as a digestive aid
To humans, kiwifruit is a known fruit that can help with digestion to ensure a happy gut… but did you know it is also supper beneficial to our furry friends?
Where we source our Kiwifruit?
The Kiwifruit used to create our vitality gravies are grown and harvested in beautiful Aotearoa.
We source our kiwi’s from a range of flourishing orchids in the North Island of New Zealand, primarily in the Bay of Plenty region.
We recently caught up with Kiwifruit grower Scott Ellison at the Konayuki Orchard in Te Puke to find out a little more about how the kiwi’s in your pet’s vitality gravy are grown and harvested
Scott Ellison and head kiwifruit picker Clover
Earthz Pet: “What are the health benefits associated with the G3 Kiwifruit grown in your orchards?”
Scott: “The health benefits of this G3 Kiwifruit is that they are high in Vitamin C and great for the digestion. I eat them once a day, and my dogs eat them more than once a day and I am happy for them to do that! They love them, and they spend most morning fossicking around to find them.”
Earthz Pet: “How much kiwifruit do you grow in this orchard?”
Scott: “There is about a hundred tonne to a hectare in here”.
Earthz Pet: “From a picking perspective, do the pickers get under the vines and pick?”
Scott: “Yeah, so the vines do rise up so we back the tractors, the bin trailer is behind the tractor and we back it towards the fruit so they start and as you pick it rises up so it is quite nice to have it quite low because you can get under the vine and from your hands it is just a short distance, any higher and it is more movement and more physical. Once you turn to and go back to the trailer it lifts up so you are walking pretty normally back to the trailer. But it does lift up as you go”.
Earthz Pet: “Do they pick all the fruit at the same time?”
Scott: “Yeah so it is all graded into size, and the sizes will ripen at a different rate… the smaller fruit take a lot longer, but because they graded by size, they all ripen at the same time”.
Earthz Pet: “If we were to go back twenty years ago, have the crop sizes increased through better management of how you harvest and grow?”
Scott: “If you go back twenty years… the crop sizes have since doubled, so we are getting twice as much off the vines”
Earthz Pet: “In terms of the gold variety itself, what is the demand for gold versus different varieties?”
Scott: “The demand for gold is very strong, and still growing. We are developing new markets all the time and it just keeps growing and growing”.
Earthz Pet: “In terms of the variety itself, what is the advantage over the gold to the green? What do they deliver?”
Scott: “The advantage the gold has over the green is it’s a sweet variety, and everyone loves sweet”.
Earthz Pet: “How involved are you in knowing where the fruit ends up?”
Scott: “We can pretty much tell where it goes. 99.9% of our fruit is exported, mainly due to our high levels of export grade class of fruit (grade 1)”.
Earthz Pet: “Scott we see you have some lovely dogs, how important is their health to you?”
Scott: “My dogs are pretty much my children and spend pretty much every moment of the day with me. Their health is just as important as my health and these kiwifruit are great for that!”
