Promising new apricots with the "wow factor" have the Moorpark variety in their parentage, says Summerfruit New Zealand chairman Gary Bennetts.
Mr Bennetts, a Roxburgh orchardist, told the Otago Chamber of Commerce "Riding the Storm" forum in Alexandra last week the new summerfruit varieties being developed at Plant and Food Research, Earnscleugh, "looked inspiring".
Moorpark was a popular variety but marked easily. "People love it, but it's difficult to handle. There's a fine balance between having it ripe enough to sell and it being firm enough for shopkeepers to handle, without marking."
Summerfruit New Zealand is the national body which represents the interests of growers, marketers and exporters of the five fruits that are labelled summerfruit - cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums.
Mr Bennetts said the organisation spent a large proportion of the levy it gathered from growers on research and breeding programmes.
Central Otago growers leaned towards export as they were so far away from the majority of the domestic market, which was north of Taupo, and transport costs were expensive.
"Some of the new varieties of apricots with a bit of a wow factor are from the old Moorpark variety, so it's going back to the taste of them, only they look good as well as tasting good."
A late cropping Moorpark, grown at Coal Creek, was the "mother tree" of one of the promising new varieties, he said.
It had the Moorpark flavour but coped with handling better, so was looking promising as an export variety.
The main export markets for apricots were Australia, North America and the United Kingdom.
