It’s not what most growers would call ideal land, but Chilean kiwifruit grower Christian Abud said his rocky 37ha “professional challenge” is now one of the world’s largest single orchards of the gold-fleshed Jintao kiwifruit variety.

Abud chose to plant on the site, in partnership with grower-marketer Subsole, because he had seen good results from the eucalypt plantation that had stood there for the previous 50 years.

“I think the advantages are on the earliness at maturity,” he told Asiafruit Magazine. “The stone is heated and releases summer temperature at night. I think the roots of the kiwifruit are very comfortable for the high oxygenation and organic matter that is left [from] the forest.”