A Greek last name is slowly becoming a household brand in Europe, the United States, Latin America and even New Zealand in a most unlikely sector, namely, in describing a fruit than even native to the east Mediterranean nation.

Specifically, the "Tsechelidis" kiwi is a new and improved tree variety characterised by higher yield and fruit weight, fruit uniformity and lower percentage of 'double', 'triple' and 'flat' fruits than the "Hayward" cultivar.

The exclusive plant breeder's rights of the "Tsechelidis" variety belong to a company based in the village of Episkopi, near the town of Naoussa, Imathia prefecture of northern Greece.

The variety is sporogenic and was created with a method used by researchers exclusively for the creation of new varieties and by many nursery gardeners for the creation of seedlings to be used in grafting cultivated varieties.

The seeds used belonged to the "Hayward" variety. Thus, the new variety was developed from one seedling, the only one among those selected from the seedbed and transplanted to the orchard.

This plant bore fruit for the first time in 1994. The characteristics of its fruit were so impressive that they immediately triggered interest for further study and follow up.

For a period of ten years, the variety was reproduced in the same orchard with the "Hayward" variety. An observation base was created with numerous plants from both testifiers, while the cultivation activities for both varieties were similar.

Observations conducted showed that the new variety has stable characteristics, which do not present degeneration, while giving an impressive advantage over the "Hayward" variety characteristics.

The first application for the recognition of the new variety was submitted to the EU Community Plant Variety Office in France in December 2003. The same process was followed through the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) in the countries of its jurisdiction interested in kiwi cultivation.

In parallel, the new variety's genetic identity was determined by the Agronomics School of the University of Volos (Thessalia, central Greece) using molecular DNA analysis. The results of the molecular analysis supported the uncontested differences between the two genotypes ("Tsechelidis" and "Hayward").

The annual kiwi production globally is estimated at 1.3 million tons, with Greece's market share at 60,000 tons.