When I was living on a small farm just outside Dunedin, I became interested in a new variety of nut being trialed by the Crop and Food Research Institute at Invermay where I also worked.
This was a very new crop to the Otago region. The plants did grow but information on markets, commercial returns, current growers, and any form of regional research was difficult to find.
The Gevuina (pronounced Giv-ween-a) nut tree has been marketed as a cool climate macadamia because of an apparent similarity in look and taste of the nut.
The benefit to Otago was that they do not need the subtropical climate in which to grow. They are a native of Chile and Argentina and have been grown in New Zealand as ornamental species for over 50 years.
As well as producing a valuable nut the trees are also an attractive specimen. They are an evergreen with glossy green leaves and soft creamy white flowers.
The native habit of Gevuina is in the Andes of Central South America at a latitude of between 35–44 degrees South. By comparison, Cromwell through to the mouth of the Waitaki in New Zealand is latitude of 45 degrees South.
The interesting thing was that in the four years that I was involved with growing gevuina from 1995 until 2000 and assisting the Otago Interest Group to establish a viable industry, we were unwittingly following the 13 step new crop commercialisation process (without even realising it at the time) which is detailed in the article Some marketing considerations when developing a new crop.
We gathered together a bunch of enthusiasts, obtained some trial trees to test their suitability in our environment, started to investigate value-adding possibilities and ran a number of field days and meetings to keep the interest up.
Surprisingly, we got immediate interest in the new nut from Cadburys who had a large chocolate and confectionery operation in nearby Dunedin. The challenge for us as growers was how to produce the volumes of nuts that they were looking for to develop a new nut bar for the marketplace. They were talking shipping container loads when we were talking bucket loads!
This was indeed a good introduction to the issues and hurdles facing groups who want to develop a new crop. To view further information about this nut click this link Gevuina avellana – a cool climate nut crop.
