University of Bologna Professor of tree physiology Luca Corelli Grappadelli spoke to about 40 growers and industry members about how Italian growers were incrementally increasing productivity to stay profitable and his research on summerfruit.
Emilia-Romagna - the region from which Prof Corelli Grappadelli came - had some of the highest labour costs in Europe and growers had to adapt their practices to lift productivity while maintaining high-quality fruit, he said.
In the past 10 years, stonefruit acreage in the region had dropped by about 20%, but production had remained stable, he said.
Part of the success had come from the development of new pruning techniques, which involved stubbing one-year-old wood to encourage fruit-bearing growth the following season.
The stubbing practices were innovative and went against traditional practice, however, in ''10-12 years the tree will look sorry and you are going to get rid of it''.
Training systems were also used to lift productivity as high-density orchards in Emilia-Romagna carried up to 2000 trees per hectare. While he believed New Zealand growers ''aren't proud enough of what they do'', there was room for some application of the practices used in Italy in New Zealand, he said.
Practices needed to be adapted to cope with modern demands, he said.
''It's about coming up with a system that's more appropriate in our age, when there's the demand for yield and quality,'' Prof Corelli Grappadelli said.
He also told those present about his research into how light affects fruit growth physiology.
He had performed experiments on how different coloured shade sails and tree orientations had affected productivity and tree health.
Experiments which utilised blue and red shade sails had provided interesting results, he said.
''Blue affects bud burst, more buds burst, but shoots will be shorter,'' Prof Corelli Grappadelli said.
''With red the opposite is true, and blue gives more photosynthesis.''
While the technology was not available to allow wide use of coloured shade sails at present, he hoped in the future it would provide another avenue for growers to increase productivity according to their needs.