‘Developing new markets for our Wine is a very high priority,’ said Tukituki MP Craig Foss, ‘and China is one such significant market.’

In 2009 New Zealand wine exports to China were worth $14.2 million or 1.4 per cent of all our wine exports.

‘We know China is a challenging market to break into,’ said Mr. Tremain. ‘There is distribution, logistic and regulatory issues however we believe with support our chances of success are greatly enhanced; and there is massive room for growth.’

The Government is allocating up to $200,000 to support detailed analysis of the market and its consumer preferences. There will also be the development of a New Zealand wine strategy for this market.

‘China is one of our fastest growing trading partners and we believe it to be a very important and extremely exciting developing market for our wines; the potential is enormous, said Mr. Tremain.

‘The support given by the Government to help our wine industry better understand this market has the capability of paying huge dividends, “said Mr. Foss

Hawke’s Bay is the launch pad for local grower Phil Alison’s tiny Rockit™ apples which will blast off today.

His Havelock North Fruit Company’s new apples are set to make their commercial debut and that’s not the only milestone he has to celebrate.

He has secured New World supermarkets locally to stock them as well as establishing offshore markets including the United Kingdom, the United States of America and selected Asian markets.

“It’s been a hard slog. The time and money that’s been spent on this is just about beyond measure but it feels like it’s just about time to crack the champagne,” said Phil.

He said he was proud the apples were a true convenience, natural, healthy snack food.

For the past five years Phil’s been working with Plant and Food Research and Hawke’s Bay company Prevar, which aims to develop new apple and pear varieties.

Their work has culminated in the variety they’ve named Rockit™, which is being released into New World supermarkets today.

The apples are presented in a cylinder pack, five apples in each, marketed as “your daily fruit burst”.

Phil said Rockit™ apples were sweet, crunchy and “distinctively fresh”.

The fruit, which is slightly bigger than a golf ball, features a block red intense blush colour.

The product’s unique packaging, smaller size of the apple natural flavour, opens up the variety to the convenience food market, which Phil said would be aimed at younger consumers as well as those looking for a healthier alternative snack.

“Part of the Rockit’s uniqueness is its size, this is a snack sensation, and we believe it will appeal to the younger age group, and it will pick up the non-apple eater,” he said.

He is also hoping consumers will see the value of opting for a snack-size apple rather than going for a big apple or traditional snacks like chocolate or chips.

Other target areas included convenience stores, gift market, food service and corporate markets.

Phil said the uniqueness of the apple and the packaging allowed them to be easily transported whether it be in the car or in lunch boxes for children.

The apples were not genetically modified but the result of cross-breeding between selected varieties.

“We’ve started growing the apple to bigger production levels over the past few years.”

 The Rockit™ variety is being growing exclusively in Hastings but there are plans later on to market the apple to growers globally, said Phil.

Rockit™ trees take about three years to produce fruit ready for the market.

“It is an easy apple to grow, there’s nothing different about the way we are growing it compared to other varieties.”

Phil said local consumers would be able to buy the apples from Saturday and should look out for the Rockit™ team who will be sampling Rockit™ apples at Hastings, Napier and Havelock North New World supermarkets from then onwards, although stocks are limited.

Hawke’s Bay Wine Country is an ideal umbrella for tourism in the Bay. It captures the unique experience the region has to offer and should be single-mindedly positioned both domestically and internationally. It was a stroke of marketing brilliance when the Bay claimed wine country (much to the chagrin of Marlborough) and it seems ironic that it has not been embraced in marketing programs.

Rather, the everything to all people strategy seems to have been adopted with the resultant regional blanding. The Wine Country positioning is a logical platform for this region and best of all it already exists throughout the region. Let’s capitalise on it.

Kim Wicksteed
Advice Ltd

Prior cakes include the IRB and airplane.

The event organisers should be proud of what they’ve achieved as it’s true vision that got this off the ground. My only grumbles would be – is the stage in the best place? Is there any elevation so that you can see what’s happening on stage from most parts of the site? And from a wine tasting perspective – it would have been great to by a ’super taste’ pass rather than keep looking for $2 coins.

It would also have been great to get some crowd involvement with events like the old events – grape crushing and barrel rolls.

These are only minor grumbles – the food stalls were fantastic (half crays for $12) and some great people watching. Let’s hope this event continues at this venue for year’s to come and that some investment is made in making it a true outdoor venue. Well done to all those involved.

When we planned Accelerate 2010 there was going to be a second Dave Dobbyn, Tim Finn and Bic Runga concert on that night at Black Barn. Unfortunately circumstances changed so Odette and I found ourselves in the concert promotion business. So rather than having to hear “Loyal” again we have an even better event happening with Katchafire in the Black Barn underground cellar on Wednesday February 17. There are very limited tickets, but it would be great to get the Fruitbowl community to join us and meet up with the Accelerate out of towners.

Tickets: $34
Cellar Opens: 6.30pm
Concert Starts: 7.00pm
Concert Finishes: 10.00pm approx

You can get tickets here:  Katchafire | 17 February | Black Barn

Hopefully see you all along.

Thanks Sam, Nick and the team!

If you are looking for a function venue I’m sure everyone at Airnet would agree this has to be at the top of your list.
http://www.sileni.co.nz/orton-catering-at-sileni.asp

I was riding up the peak tonight with my old school buddy Bruce from Aurum Coffee who is in the final stages of getting a website makeover.  We were chatting about Twitter (actually I was breathing so hard I was just trying to keep him talking) but I did manage to get out that maybe Twitter might be useful, as he can tell people what’s on, what the weather is like at the farmers market and will be able to see directly if he can build a following on line.

So we signed him up for twitter.  http://twitter.com/aurumcoffee

Be interesting to see how many followers he gets and what a week looks like for the Bay’s most connected coffee roaster.

As Bruce is out and about most of the day, and doesn’t have Internet at the farmers market (yet!!), or an iPhone (yet), we were able to set him up with SMS to Twitter so he can send a message from anywhere. It was really easy:  http://www.telecom.co.nz/twitter

Will be interesting to see how it goes.

You can check out the results here: Air New Zealand Wine Awards

We had one at the Deli in the village last week and it was great to have something that you don’t eat every day (rabbit!).

The winners are voted by us – diners at restaurants. Has anyone had a signature dish?