{"id":89018,"date":"2025-10-20T00:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T00:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89018\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T00:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T00:36:09","slug":"worlds-largest-blueberry-variety-eterna-to-be-grown-in-kerikeri-and-waikato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89018\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s largest blueberry variety, Eterna, to be grown in Kerikeri and Waikato"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">Tallon described the Eterna berry that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as a good, large blueberry that weighed 20.4 grams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">He said the imported blueberry stock was tested for pests and diseases by the Ministry for Primary Industries before being released to growers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThose then get taken through to tissue culture and our commercial nurseries, where we grow them into commercial plants for our farms and external growers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe big push is always how do you get better berries, firmer berries, better shelf life and ultimately they have to be good tasting fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">Simon Tallon expected a limited number of the monster-sized blueberries to be on some supermarket shelves later next year.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\" Eterna blueberries are being planted in the Kerikeri and Waikato regions. Photo \/ The Fresh Berry Company\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/> Eterna blueberries are being planted in the Kerikeri and Waikato regions. Photo \/ The Fresh Berry Company<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">He said The Fresh Berry Company was also starting its first berry farm in the South Island next year, in Nelson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cAll of our production is covered in plastic tunnel houses apart from some of the blueberries that are exported.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">Tallon said there was likely to be a bumper crop of strawberries leading up to Christmas from its growers and farms in Hawke\u2019s Bay, Waikato and Northland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe are expecting to have a pretty good volume this year so consumers can enjoy strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">He said $120 million of berries were sold in the country last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">&#8211; RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tallon described the Eterna berry that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as a good,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,5195,39430,67197,45640,42,78,16571,19136,43,8909,61,40,38,41,39,36986,1524,67198,17450],"class_list":{"0":"post-89018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-be","10":"tag-blueberry","11":"tag-eterna","12":"tag-grown","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-in","15":"tag-kerikeri","16":"tag-largest","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-sally","19":"tag-to","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-variety","25":"tag-waikato","26":"tag-wenley","27":"tag-worlds"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}