EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This online kiwiberry production and enterprise viability guide was developed in response to a growing community of current and prospective small-scale fruit producers throughout the northeast looking for in-depth, regionally-relevant information on this emerging specialty crop. Kiwiberry has an extensive 140-year history of cultivation in New England, first as an ornamental landscape vine and subsequently as a novel fruit crop on private estates and in backyard gardens. In more recent decades, a handful of producers have experimented with field-scale kiwiberry production; and such pioneering work has not only demonstrated the commercial viability of the crop in our region but also helped catalyze interest among consumers and researchers.

To support the development of kiwiberry as a new, high-value fruit crop for the northeast, the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station (NHAES) launched a long-term kiwiberry research and breeding program in 2013. This guide, comprised of a statewide market assessment, a detailed production manual, and an enterprise viability guide, is a synthesis of the knowledge gathered and generated over the first five years of that program. Globally, kiwiberry production is on the rise, signaling a transition of the crop from the realm of novel fruit enthusiasts to a high-value horticultural commodity. With the information presented here, continually updated as appropriate, it is our hope that interested producers in the Northeastern U.S. will be better prepared to decide whether or not to integrate kiwiberries into their current production systems.