Kiwi
Hayward from the humid Caspian belt, graded to EU class by fruit weight and shipped on a documented cold chain.
- Actinidia deliciosa
- Hayward
- 0810.50
- Fresh, whole fruit
- Extra · Class I · Class II
- European Union
Specification transcribed from the Iranian Fresh Green Kiwi Product Catalogue 2026 (Rev. 2). Figures are commercial benchmarks confirmed per lot and season, not guaranteed values for every orchard.
Commercial specification
- IranSelected Iranian orchards on the Caspian belt
- Mazandaran · Gilan · Golestan
- October — DecemberThe Caspian belt's long, mild autumn lets fruit stay on the vine long enough to reach dry matter. Cold storage extends supply into the following spring.
- Extra · Class I · Class IISeparated by minimum fruit weight — 90 g, 70 g and 65 g. Class follows weight; it is not a commercial preference.
- 30 — 60Fruit count per standard package. A lower calibre number means a heavier fruit.
- 65 g — 125 g and aboveBy calibre. The full reconciliation of calibre, weight and class is set out below.
- 10 kg bulk carton · 5 / 5.5 kg carton · 500 g — 1 kg retail packTray, punnet or flow-pack to customer specification, under the PAYA ORIGIN brand or private label. Board grade is chosen for the stack height, not the single carton.
- 0 — 1 °C, 90 — 95 % RHPre-cooled to approximately 0 — 2 °C before loading, and loaded at pulp temperature rather than cooled down in transit.
- 3 — 4 months, indicativeSubject to harvest maturity, dry matter, firmness, pre-cooling, storage conditions, ethylene management and cold-chain integrity. Longer storage periods are claimed only after commercial validation trials on the specific Iranian product.
- 1200 × 800 mm · 40 ft reeferNo standing cartons-per-container figure is published. Any number quoted before the carton is specified is a guess, and a buyer planning a programme around it will be short.
- Issued per destination countryMandatory for fresh Actinidia since September 2019.
Available for export
- Middle East
- Russia
- India
- Europe
Market availability depends on season, specification and the destination’s import requirements.
Detail
The records are made in the field.
Maturity is confirmed before picking, and the reading belongs to the production lot rather than the shipment. A complaint that arrives three months later is only answerable if the lot, the orchard and the harvest date are still attached to the carton number.
Assessment recorded at the point the fruit is picked.
Calibre
Calibre is weight. Weight is class.
Calibre is the fruit count per standard package — a lower number means a heavier fruit. Weight bands are indicative and are reconciled against the packing-house calibration record for each lot.
Mixed shipments
A consignment containing only calibres 30 — 48 may be declared Extra or Class I as applicable. Where calibres are mixed across classes, the class is stated per calibre on the carton label.
Why this matters
Calibres 54 and 60 fall below the 70 g Class I threshold. Declaring them as Class I is a marketing-standard breach, not a grading judgement — so we do not do it.
Grading is mechanical or manual against calibrated commercial size. Weight bands are indicative; the packing-house calibration record governs.
Maturity benchmarks
Either target, not both.
Meeting the soluble solids target or the dry matter target — not necessarily both at once — is sufficient to demonstrate commercial maturity, consistent with the EU marketing standard.
At packing
Soluble solids
6.2 — 9.0 °Brix
The EU legal minimum is 6.2 °Brix at packing, rising to 9.5 °Brix by entry into distribution. This specification sets 6.2 as the floor and 9.0 as the practical ceiling at packing. Kiwifruit continues to ripen in storage — soluble solids at harvest are not soluble solids at consumption. Measured by calibrated digital refractometry.
Dry matter
15 — 17 %
The EU legal minimum is 15 % average dry matter at packing. Dry matter is measured as part of the harvest maturity control programme and monitored as a leading indicator of eating quality, with the final commercial specification established after validation trials.
Firmness
≥ 60 — 70 N
Measured with a calibrated penetrometer on a consistent test method. Lot-specific and subject to validation for the storage programme and buyer requirement. A firmness record is maintained for each production lot.
Measured, per lot
Readings belong to a production lot and travel with it. A shipment-level average hides the lot that will fail.
Storage changes the number
Kiwifruit keeps ripening in store. A Brix figure is only meaningful with the date and the stage it was taken at.
Set the limits together
Final acceptance limits are agreed with the buyer: maturity requirements vary with storage duration and destination.
Every figure here is an instrument reading. Brix comes off a calibrated digital refractometer, firmness off a calibrated penetrometer, residues off an accredited laboratory report. None of it is a claim we make about ourselves — ask for the records; they exist because they are made routinely.
Exporter
Quality
Checked at three points.
Before procurement
During sourcing
Before shipment
Cold chain
The cold chain starts in the orchard, not the warehouse.
Kiwifruit keeps ripening after it is picked. Every stage below is about controlling the rate at which that happens.
- 01
Harvest
Maturity confirmed by soluble solids or dry matter before picking.
- 02
Packing
Grading, calibration and packing, with lot records opened.
- 03
Pre-cooling
Pulp temperature brought down to approximately 0 — 2 °C.
- 04
Cold storage
Held at 90 — 95 % relative humidity.
- 05
Container loading
Loaded at pulp temperature, not cooled down in transit.
- 06
Sea transport
40 ft reefer, set point per shipping protocol.
- 0 — 1 °C
- 90 — 95 %
- 0 — 2 °C
- 3 — 4 months
Research has demonstrated good storage potential for Iranian Hayward under controlled cold storage, but performance is strongly influenced by harvest maturity and post-harvest handling. The variety is not the guarantee; the programme is.
Traceability
Every carton walks back to a tree.
Each carton is traceable through five links. If any one of them is missing, the chain is not a chain.
- 01
Exporter
The party on the contract and the phytosanitary certificate.
- 02
Packhouse
Where grading, calibration and packing were carried out.
- 03
Production lot
The unit that carries the quality and treatment records.
- 04
Orchard / producer
Named grower and orchard code — not a district, and not a region.
- 05
Harvest date
The date the maturity readings belong to.
Retained against every lot
- Producer code
- Orchard code
- Variety
- Harvest date
- Packing date
- Lot number
- Calibre
- Packhouse
- Treatment records
- Storage records
- Firmness record
- Residue analysis
A complaint that reaches us three months after arrival is only answerable if the lot, the orchard and the harvest date are still attached to the carton number. Traceability is a claims tool before it is a compliance one.
Compliance
Compliance is documented, or it has not happened.
All fruit complies with the applicable EU Maximum Residue Levels for pesticides. The target is no MRL exceedances.
Provided per export lot, where required
- Multiresidue pesticide analysis
- Accredited laboratory report covering the relevant pesticide panel for the destination market.
- Heavy-metal analysis
- Where specified by the buyer or required by the destination.
- Microbiological analysis
- Where applicable to the product and programme.
- Report identification
- Laboratory accreditation details, sample and lot identification, and date of analysis on every report.
Preferred certification package
- GLOBALG.A.P.
- Primary production certification at orchard level.
- GRASP
- Social practice assessment, where applicable to the programme.
- BRCGS / IFS / FSSC 22000
- Packhouse food-safety certification, selected according to buyer requirement.
- HACCP-based system
- Food-safety management across handling, packing and storage.
Certification requirements are confirmed with each buyer before contracting. We name what is held; we do not imply certification we do not hold.
Packaging
Under our label or yours.
Cold-chain from packhouse to port; carton and tray formats matched to the market.
Format, count, labelling language and compliance marks change by destination, so they are agreed with the specification. Exact formats and weights are confirmed product by product.
Packaging and private label
10 kg carton
Loose-packed fruit for importer or wholesaler repacking. The format that moves volume with the fewest handling steps.
5 / 5.5 kg carton
Single or double layer according to calibre. The working format for service wholesale and for retail programmes that repack on arrival.
500 g / 1 kg pack
Tray, punnet or flow-pack to customer specification, under the PAYA ORIGIN brand or your private label.
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