A New Kiwifruit Cultivar ‘Nokong’ with High Sugar and Vitamin C Content

Kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.), a deciduous vine belonging to the family Actinidiaceae and the genus Actinidia, is cultivated primarily in New Zealand, Chile, and China (Lee et al. 2020).Globally, the genus Actinidia is comprised of 60 species (Ferguson 1999), among which several species, such as Actinidia arguta, Actinidia rufa, Actinidia polygama, and Actinidia kolomikta are native to Korea.These Actinidia resources exhibit considerable variation among species, making them valuable genetic resources for breeding (Ferguson 1999).Leveraging this genetic diversity, kiwifruit breeding programs worldwide have developed various cultivars (Lee et al. 2020).Kiwifruit was first introduced to Korea in 1978, which began its cultivation (Kwack