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Celebrating
Contents History of Kiwifruit ...................................................................................... 4-5 How Kiwifruit got its name e ........................................................................... 6 NZKGI 25th anniversary ce elebrations............................................................ 8 NZKGI ch halllenges over the years................................................................. 9 Industry encourages new blood................................................................. 10 Turners & Growers look back on challenging years ................................... 12 Looking towards the future ........................................................................ 13 New cultivars ............................................................................................. 13 Zespri ................................................................................................... 14-17 Pioneer growers helped shape industry..................................................... 18 Early growers death ended an era ............................................................. 20 Psa crisis showed growers’ resilience........................................................ 22 Hailstorms added to growers’ woes .......................................................... 22 Packers pump $225m into infrastructure ................................................... 24 Red kiwifruit could be a game changer...................................................... 25 Workers share stories of life in kiwifruit world ............................................ 26 Iwi look to increase stake in orchards ........................................................ 27 Research institute aims to shake up agtech .............................................. 28 Seeds of Success....................................................................................... 30
Minister pays tribute BY DAMIEN O’CONNOR, MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND BIOSECURITY
O
ur kiwifruit growers are true pioneers. They have guided the New Zealand kiwifruit industry to become one of our most successful industries.
Who would have thought that decades ago a bunch of growers could take a fruit from China, breed and develop it, and market it to the world? Our growers have travelled a rollercoaster of highs and lows in a relatively short space of time, but their determination, business acumen, innovation, and a keen sense for meeting consumer expectations have helped them succeed.
kiwifruit’s success This publication celebrates two major milestones for the kiwifruit industry – the name change 60 years ago from Chinese gooseberry to kiwifruit and the 25th anniversary of the founding of NZ Kiwifruit Growers Inc. Both played a major part in the success of an industry which has overcome huge obstacles including the devastating outbreak of Psa in 2010, to become a major horticultural success story.
to ‘true pioneers’
Kiwifruit is New Zealand’s largest horticultural export industry and the evolution of the technical, commercial, marketing and scientific skills of our early kiwifruit pioneers paved the way for the fruit’s success. Today the industry is booming. Kiwifruit export revenue is expected to be around $2b for 2019. Forecast industry revenue is impressive, with potential to double over the next 10 years. However, such success must take experiences of the past into account. Just like all other primary industry sectors, the kiwifruit industry must remain vigilant, as the impact of the vine disease Psa-V has shown so vividly. Experience has shown us that biosecurity will continue to play an important role in the industry, and I encourage the industry to continue its vigilance.
The Government has been, and remains, an important stakeholder throughout the industry’s evolution. Structures have evolved over time, with the industry largely taking charge of its own direction. The Government’s commitment to the industry will continue to focus on key areas like biosecurity, market access, and research and development. Congratulations New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated on your 25th anniversary. Your organisation has been a strong voice for growers, with wellestablished working relationships with Zespri Group Limited and the Government. This is the spirit in which the Government wants to work. In partnership with the primary sectors to build a productive, sustainable, and inclusive economy that improves the wellbeing and living standards of all New Zealanders.
Minister of Agriculture and Biosecurity Damien O’Connor pictured outside the Beehive in Wellington.
June 2019 Published by:
3
History of
Kiwifruit BY ELAINE FISHER
T
he remarkable story of how kiwifruit arrived in New Zealand begins in 1903 when forward-thinking and well-respected educationalist Isabel Fraser, headmistress at Wanganui Girls’ College, visited her missionary sister Katie at a mission station in Yichang, China. It was while there that Isabel was given seeds of what is now known as kiwifruit, most likely by English plant collector Ernest Henry Wilson.
Wilson had been sent to China by renowned English nursery James Veitch & Sons to collect seeds of the handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata). In his book A Naturalist in China with Vasculum, Camera and Gun, published in 1913, Wilson writes; “a climber called ‘Yang-tao’ in Hupeh and ‘Mao-erh-tao’ in Szechuan (Actinidia chinensis) is very abundant from 2500 to 6000 feet altitude. “It produces excellent fruit of a roundish or oval shape, one inch to two and a half inches long, with a thin, brown, often hairy skin covering luscious green flesh. This is an excellent dessert fruit and makes a fine preserve. In 1900 I had the pleasure of introducing this fruit to the foreign residents of Ichang [Yichang], with whom it found immediate favour and is now known throughout the Yangtsze Valley as the ‘Ichang Gooseberry’.
“This valuable climber has, in addition to its edible fruit, ornamental foliage and shoots and large fragrant flowers, white fading to buff-yellow. It is a good garden plant; the only drawback is that the flowers are polygamous and it is necessary to secure the hermaphrodite form to ensure fruit.”
Allison appears to have been part of the close network of Manawatu and Wanganui nurserymen and horticulturalists who often swapped or gifted new plants. In 1910, nurseryman Frank Mason recorded in his diary that he had tasted fruit from a plant grown in Alexander Allison’s garden.
When she returned to New Zealand Isabel gave the seeds to Thomas Allison, a Wanganui solicitor, who passed them to his brother Alexander who had an interest in plants, especially new and unusual varieties.
By 1917 Frank Mason was selling plants to Duncan and Davies nursery in New Plymouth. Once the plants started to fruit, he gave seeds to BH (Bruno) Just, a fellow nurseryman of Palmerston North. The cultivars developed by Bruno were likely to have traced their origins to plants grown by Norman Gorton of Fielding, the same source as the cultivars later selected by Hayward Wright.
It was probably a very small number of seeds that Isabel Fraser brought back – maybe a thousand, maybe a few thousand, possibly fewer and they may have been from one fruit from one plant or from several fruit from one plant or even from fruit from different plants. Especially fortuitous for New Zealand, was that those seeds produced both male and female plants, while seeds Ernest Wilson sent to England and the USA appear to have given rise to only male vines so the plants were considered as garden vines, not commercial fruiting vines. By 1910 Alexander Allison had vines producing fruit on his property Letham, on the main road south from Wanganui, probably giving rise to all the kiwifruit cultivars developed in the first half of the 20th century.
By 1920 several nurserymen, including Hayward Wright, were offering kiwifruit plants (then known as Chinese gooseberries) for sale. Plantings were recorded in Auckland, Tauranga, Fielding and Wanganui. It was to be the work of Bruno Just and Hayward Wright which laid the foundations for today’s kiwifruit industry. While Bruno fruit initially found favour with growers and processors, its poor keeping qualities disqualified it as an export crop. However, Bruno rootstock has proved tolerant of the kiwifruit vine disease Psa-V, discovered in New Zealand in November 2010, and as such has played a role in the re-grafting of vines to the more tolerant G3 gold variety.
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Alexander Allison of Wanganui who propagated the first kiwifruit seeds brought to New Zealand in 1904.
The exceptional storage capabilities of Hayward, plus its colour and taste saw it selected as the only fruit for export from New Zealand in 1975. The first steps towards export of New Zealand Chinese gooseberries began
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when Te Puke grower Jim MacLoughlin approached Stan Conway of New Zealand Fruitgrowers Federation who agreed to handle shipping and marketing of fruit offshore for local growers.
conditions and Don Ravenhill of Poupart sent the message: “A delightful fruit of which we’d like to see a commercial shipment come forward”.
At around the same time Conway was contacted by John Riley, an Englishman with connections to British produce brokers TJ Poupart, who had tried Chinese gooseberries in New Zealand and was keen to get samples for the British market.
For many years Don Ravenhall sent some of Jim’s fruit to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
quality over the Abbott, Monty and Bruno varieties of Chinese gooseberry and should be the only export fruit. Grahame Turner of exporters Turners & Growers had also recognised the qualities of Hayward and actively encouraged
growers, including Graham Bayliss, to focus on that variety for export. Ultimately Hayward became the dominant kiwifruit variety worldwide – including in China and is today responsible for about 95 per cent of world trade.
In 1952 Jim MacLoughlin and fellow Te Puke grower, Graeme Bayliss together exported 2,000 cases of fruit, most of it packed in double-layer wooden boxes.
The result was the first export of Chinese gooseberries in 1953 when Jim supplied 40, 10-pound (4.5kg) Graham Bayliss boxes of mainly identified early Bruno fruit, shipped in the industry’s along with tamarillos and formative years, that the lemons. The Chinese Hayward variety gooseberries Headmistress at Wanganui Girls’ College, was superior in arrived in excellent Isabel Fraser, brought the first kiwifruit seeds to taste and keeping New Zealand in 1904 after a trip to China in 1903.
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
Auckland nurseryman Hayward Wright selected the fruit which today accounts for 95 per cent of the world’s kiwifruit trade.
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5
How kiwifruit
got its name BY CAMERON SCOTT
T
he word Kiwifruit was coined by Turners & Growers Management in 1959.
It was an inspired choice, and the background facts surrounding its naming are fascinating, says former Turners & Growers managing director, Don Turner.
He says Chinese gooseberries were brought as seeds to New Zealand from China in 1904. “The name was probably determined either in America or the UK, where seeds were also introduced, though the fruit product was less successful. “Various NZ nurserymen undertook selection and breeding, producing what became known as the ‘Standard’ varieties of Allison, Monty, Abbott, Bruno, and Gracie, usually named after the nurseryman involved. “Sometime in the 1920s an Avondale Auckland nurseryman, Hayward Wright, bred the Hayward variety and the Bay of Plenty, especially Te Puke, became known as the region where the fruit grew best.” Though all the varieties were grown by the 1950s, growers were achieving much better yields with Standards, and rejected the bigger and better Hayward. The NZ Fruitgrowers Federation, the national grower body and a cooperative trading company, started exporting Standards, and were the sole exporters until 1959. Fruit was sourced mainly from No 3 Rd growers in Te Puke, and sent only to England (on the back of the apple trade), with a few to Sydney. “The trade was measured in hundreds of trays rather than thousands,” says Turner. By the mid-1950s, Turners & Growers, the largest fruit and produce wholesaler, had identified Hayward as the variety of choice for the discerning retailer, and encouraged more production. “A retailer called Arthur Stoddard left Auckland and planted a few acres of Hayward in Otumoetai, followed by a partnership of Roly Earp and Graham Bayliss, with a much bigger block in Te Puke,” says Turner. “By the late 50s, Hayward volumes became more available, so Turners & Growers, which had a large international
6
trade with the US and Japan, exporting onions and importing a range of fruits, decided to export some Haywards to the US, both to their West Coast agent Ziel and Co in San Francisco, and to Honolulu. “Grahame Turner commenced correspondence with each company and Norman Zondag of Ziel replied to request another name for the fruit. “He said gooseberries would have a hard time entering the US due to an incidence of Anthracnose disease. No mention was made of the Cold War with China, but one might assume that was another issue. “So Turners’ management, which as well as Grahame extended to his father Harvey Turner and brother Jack Turner conferred, and the name “melonette” was suggested. This suggestion met with some diffidence from the two importers, and a Ma- ori name was requested. Another conference came up with ‘kiwifruit.’ Turners & Growers exported the first kiwifruit to San Francisco in 1959, and Grahame Turner was there to welcome the shipment. He was photographed with agent Norman Zondag, broker Bill Bennett, and wholesaler Frieda Caplan. The latter two retain some involvement in the industry to this day, Turner says.
Former New Zealand Kiwifruit Authority chairman Don Brash (centre) pictured with Turners and Growers executives, Grahame Turner (left) and Jack Turner (right) at celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the naming of kiwifruit by Turners and Growers. This year marks the 60th anniversary.
Within the next few years Turners & Growers had pioneered sales to Japan and Germany, till recently the two principal markets.” But the new name still faced some opposition. While Turners & Growers actively encouraged the change of name for the whole industry, the NZ Fruitgrowers Federation was unimpressed with the new name, and its growers were also reluctant to move away from Standard varieties and convert to Haywards. “After a few more years, they made a change to their name of “kiwi berries”, Turner says.” “In 1970, the Kiwifruit Export Promotion Committee (KEPC), a new industry-wide body comprising three growers and three exporter members, was formed. So by then the name was in full use on exports, and gradually it became adopted on local markets too. By the mid 60s it had become abundantly clear that Haywards were the future, Turner adds. “But well into the 1970s, Standards were still being exported, until the industry through the KEPC decreed that Haywards only were to be exported.”
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
The arrival of the first kiiwifruit shipment from NZ to the US was a huge milestone for the fledgling kiwifruit industry.
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25th
Anniversary celebrations BY CAMERON SCOTT
T
he 25th anniversary of the formation of NZ Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated will be celebrated at a dinner event to be held on July 3 at Mills Reef Winery in Bethlehem. The MC will be Ben Hurley and keynote speaker will be the Minister of Agriculture and Biosecurity Damien O’Connor. There will also be speeches from the first and current chairman as well as from representatives of Zespri and other guests. The grower organisation became an incorporated society on August 16, 1994. Chief executive Nikki Johnson says NZKGI came out of the very early days of the formation of the kiwifruit industry to unite growers for the good of the industry as a whole. “It is important to recognise this is our 25 years celebration, but also recognise what our organisation has grown into today, as an effective advocate which works with a range of stakeholders to support the future growth of the booming industry. The commercial kiwifruit industry started to take off in the 1960s and was booming by the 1980s, Johnson says.
“A crash in export prices and a widespread belief in the industry that exporters were competing with each other
in the markets, bringing down returns, resulted in the 1988 formation of the Kiwifruit Marketing Board with statutory powers to buy all kiwifruit for export. “In 1992 and 1993, kiwifruit had to be dumped when the Kiwifruit Marketing Board set prices too high. A review of the industry was carried out and NZKGI was formed to support and represent growers.” Johnson says growers will have their own opinions as to what has been the biggest highlight for NZKGI over the last 25 years, but one of the more recent would have to be the KISP process. “In 2014, the Kiwifruit Industry Strategy Project (KISP) was established with the aim of developing a strategy to achieve the industry’s long-term market, strategic and financial goals for the benefit of New Zealand’s kiwifruit growers. The decisions made through referendums by growers confirmed their support for the Single Point of Entry (SPE) structure using one exporter (Zespri) over multiple exporters. “This set the foundations for industry growth, illustrating the selfdetermination and responsibility that growers possess.” The grower advocacy body for New Zealand’s kiwifruit growers, NZKGI has over 2,500 members from the top of the North Island to the top of the South Island. “To ensure NZKGI is providing the best support available to the kiwifruit industry,
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc chief executive Nikki Johnson.
NZKGI supports growers under six portfolios – Industry Stability, Performance & Supply, Communications, Labour and Education, External Relations and Organisation,” Johnson says.
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Challenges
over the years
BY CAMERON SCOTT
A
s well as the scourge of Psa, whic ch devastated kiwifruit orchards across New Zealand from 2010, NZKGI has dealt with plenty of other challenges in the 25 years of its existence, says chief executive Nikki Johnson. She lists adverse weather events such as Cyclone Bola, the 2008 global financial crisis, the lifting of the anti-dumping law in the US, the 1999 Kiwifruit Restructuring Act, kiwifruit regulations and domestic and international challenges to the Single Point of Entry (SPE) structure. “NZKGI is currently facing one of its largest challenges, which is a result of the current rapid industry expansion. “This involves securing labour and issues around the quality and quantity of water and the topic of ‘right to plant’.” Looking to the future, Johnson says NZKGI is working to ensure that growers are able to take up opportunities for industry expansion. “The industry is forecast to grow quickly as international demand for Zespri kiwifruit increases. Zespri’s five-year outlook sees an increase in total global Class 1 supply from 170 million trays in 2018/19 to 216 million trays in 2023/24. This is equivalent to 27 per cent volume growth. “Of this total volume of supply, Zespri’s plan forecasts NZ supply of nearly 177 million trays. “To achieve those goals NZKGI is focusing on a variety of topics, including ensuring that there is enough seasonal and permanent labour supply, as well as working in the areas of water quantity and quality.”
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One of the biggest challenges facing the NZKGI now is a shortage of labour, says chief executive Nikki Johnson. The shortages apply to both the picking and packing side of the kiwifruit industry.
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Industry
encourages new blood BY CAMERON SCOTT
T
he ever-expanding kiwifruit industry needs more skilled workers, and it provides plenty of help and encouragement for young people to take up careers in horticulture.
The Zespri Horticultural Undergraduate Scholarship offers up to $15,000 ($5000 per year for three years) towards tuition fees as well as support and experience in the kiwifruit industry. The opportunities in horticulture are wide-ranging, and the subjects that can be studied at university include event management, market access, IT, finance, supply-chain, legal, logistics, HR, accounting, nutrition, science and communications. Applications close on September 30 this year. Around 100 scholarships have been offered by Zespri over the last 10 years. They have ranged from assisting students to attend holiday science programmes to high level science research fellowships worth up to $30,000.
The humble kiwifruit has spawned a massive industry that encourages students and graduates into a wide range of career.
For people living in the Bay of Plenty who want to improve their horticultural skills or those of their workers, the NZ Kiwifruit Growers Inc website offers a tool to make the qualification selection process easier. It’s a horticulture qualification table showing all course options available in the Bay of Plenty region, from entry-level options through to Level 5 Diplomas.
NZKGI also offers the annual “Cultivate Your Career” event, coordinated by the organisation in a bid to attract young people into the region’s horticulture industry. Students from years 11, 12 and 13 participate in a series of modules presented by industry representatives on all manner of horticultural subjects and then complete an activity involving the module.
PHOTO / JAMIE TROUGHTON/DSCRIBE MEDIA SERVICES
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Last year two events were held in Tauranga and the Eastern Bay of Plenty, attended by a total of 247 students.
Meanwhile, Katikati College has launched a pilot horticultural programme designed to attract students into the horticultural industry.
During the day students spent over an hour at a variety of businesses, participating in practical activities involved in process, product and marketing innovation and learning about careers in these fields.`
The college’s revamped programme works with key industry organisations including Zespri and NZKGI as well as local orchardists, growers and packhouses.
11
Looking back on
challenging years
BY CAMERON SCOTT
D
eveloping the kiwifruit industry during the challenging years of the 1970s and 1980s was by no means easy, says the former managing director of Turners & Growers, Don Turner. Looking back on his decades of involvement with the kiwifruit industry, starting when he first began working fulltime for the pioneering family business in 1971, he says though exporters were licensed, competition was still intense. “Exporters cooperated well and collated remarkable industry statistics in real time. The exponential growth that occurred back then has never been experienced in percentage growth terms, either in kiwifruit subsequently, or in any other major fruit crop internationally. “And it was achieved at an average return over the last five years up to 1988 to growers for Green per tray of around $6.00, which is not too different from the average for green over the subsequent 30 years.” Turner says there are multiple reasons why times were so turbulent for the industry during the 20 key years of the 1970s and 1980s.
High among them were the impact of over-generous export incentives by the Muldoon government, the impact of Britain joining the EU, which forced New Zealand to expand its land-based industries, and the availability of vast sums of bank finance to growers. “And then the biennial bearing of those early days, meaning huge additional volumes to market every second year, at prices inevitably lower than the previous season, all contributed to inflated ideas of the returns expected by investors. This in turn meant financial pressures on growers inside the system. “The upshot of those times is that there are comparatively few growers from those days still in the industry.” Turner says the kiwifruit industry, especially the powerful packing organisations, is not without its pressures today, but it has faced down the Psa disaster, is stable, modern and growing fast again. “Stability during growth phases is vital, and the industry must strive to retain this stability and leadership as it continues its remarkable success.” Managing Psa and developing Gold kiwifruit have clearly been the industry’s two major achievements over the past decade, Turner says. “And these are both of huge significance. Enormous credit
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must go to those in Zespri who are responsible, particularly in persuading the government to help out. Without the single industry approach, both challenges could well have been handled disastrously.” After serving as managing director for 15 years Turner retired from “T&G” in 2002, at the start of the company’s merger with ENZA. “I managed TG Exports from 1974 to 1987, and oversaw the expansion of the kiwifruit industry from a few million trays to 50m in 1988, which was the quantity the board stopped at for many years, virtually until it restarted its remarkable expansion again, led by Gold. “Since then I have assisted journalists interested in the 1959 naming of Kiwifruit by T&G, as I hold all the original correspondence, and I have tried to keep updated on all industry matters.” Turner says he has also kept in touch with several of the leading figures from the early days of the kiwifruit industry. “The industry has achieved so much over its time. Kiwifruit is the biggest new fruit of the 20th century, from a standing start. All achieved by New Zealanders! “It was hard to convince importers in those early days, though Germany and Japan were the main drivers of the expansion. “They saw the opportunity and the merit of the fruit.”
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
Former Turners & Growers managing director Don Turner.
Looking
towards the future BY CAMERON SCOTT
T
he most pressing concern facing efforts to introduce new kiwifruit cultivars in New Zealand in the future will be new pest incursions, says the general manager for New Cultivar Innovation at The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, Zac Hanley.
As an example, of the issues involved in dealing with these incursions, he points to border protection measures in place for Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, described by Kiwifruit Vine Health as kiwifruit industry’s second-most unwanted biosecurity threat after the fruit fly. The stringent protection measures are certainly justified, but for scientists, there’s a downside, Hanley says. “They also prevent us from breeding varieties of kiwifruit that are resistant to the bug, since we need the bug to try and eat our candidates, so we can find which ones are resistant.” A serious longer-term issue facing the industry is that models for climate change suggest it will be increasingly difficult to grow existing kiwifruit varieties in the Bay of Plenty, where 80 per cent of New Zealand production is currently based. “New varieties that have proven themselves in future climates are going to be required,” says Hanley.
“It’s important to recognise that climate change isn’t all about holiday temperatures, Atlantic storms, or sea-levels next century – it is about our growers and their (grand)children’s livelihoods. “One of our responses to PFR’s breeding programmes is to ensure we take into account the possible future scenarios. For example we might avoid candidate varieties that have high winter-chill requirements, otherwise they won’t serve our industries.” Cultivar innovation is a very big deal at Plant & Food Health, which in 2017 won the Prime Minister’s Science Award for its contributions to the kiwifruit industry. The prize was awarded for work the organisation did on replacing the diseasesusceptible gold kiwifruit variety and in developing orchard management practices to allow growers to live with Psa. “We have contributions from over 150 of our staff into the kiwifruit new cultivars programme as well as contractors on the orchards and collaborators in companies and universities,” Hanley says.
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
The general manager for New Cultivar Innovation at The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, Zac Hanley.
the yields that growers are seeing and the quality of the fruit that gets through the supply chain to consumers around the world.
establishment of formal joint laboratories is relatively recent. It’s early days, but I expect the exchange of scientists and ideas to increase as a result.”
“These make a difference to how New Zealand kiwifruit are seen globally.”
In March this year a small quantity of the first Zespri® Red Kiwifruit went on sale at New Zealand retail outlets for several weeks.
“About 30 staff devote their full-time efforts to kiwifruit, including breeders, orchard operations, researchers, managers, programmers, and support staff.
Plant and Food Research has a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Institute of Plant Protection and joint kiwifruit laboratory in China. Hanley says relationships of that kind are becoming increasingly important.
“Of our other contributions to the industry, there is a lot of our science underpinning
“Although we’ve worked with (and trained) Chinese researchers for decades, the
The fruit was bred by Plant & Food Research and there are some other exciting prospects in the pipeline, Hanley adds. However, he is understandably coy on the details. “There’s a lot going on, but we need to respect the commercial priorities of our partner Zespri.”
New
Cultivars BY CAMERON SCOTT
T
he largest part of Plant & Food Research’s kiwifruit breeding programme is based at the organisation’s site in Te Puke. Most but not all of its kiwifruit breeders and a range of support functions, from orchard management to software development, are housed there, as well as some research scientists.
“All the elements of a kiwifruit breeding programme are there, from nursery facilities, phenotyping laboratories, orchard blocks, coolstores, glasshouses, and a packhouse,” says the general manager for New Cultivar Innovation at Plant & Food Research, Zac Hanley. “We have other facilities at other sites but, for kiwifruit breeding, Te Puke is the flagship. We also conduct some physiology and cultivation research on avocado at this site.” Government investment in the kiwifruit breeding programme is continuing and Hanley says Zespri has been able to contribute “significant” funding to the breeding programme and bring the government along in partnership through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Thanks to research and the development of new cultivars, kiwifruit now comes in many different varieties.
“We welcome that and are pleased that government recognises the value of the work that has been done to date. “Plant & Food Research can always identify more science that
will, for example, help deliver new kiwifruit varieties faster or future proof varieties against problems like new pest incursions or climate change.
“And we are continuing to put forward cases for good, relevant science to government and other funders to support kiwifruit breeding.”
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Pioneer growers
helped shape industry T
he story behind some of Te Puke’s most notable kiwifruit pioneers is told in the new book Seeds of Success — the stories of New Zealand’s Kiwifruit Pioneers. The book traces the stories of growers who followed the lead of Jim MacLoughlin and the Bayliss brothers to shape today’s successful kiwifruit industry. Ray Burt was 10 when his parents Harold Robert Burt (known as Barney) and mother Olive (known as Dolly) brought their children, Ray, Bob and Pam, from the Wairarapa to Te Puke back in 1942. “The railcar took us from Featherston to Palmerston North where we caught the overnight train to Hamilton. We had pillows but had to sleep in our seats,” Ray says. “In Hamilton we caught the Taneatua Express which went through Paeroa and Katikati and eventually to Te Puke.”
By the mid-1970s all the family land was in kiwifruit and brothers Bob and Ray began growing kiwifruit in their own right, going into partnership in the construction and operation of a packhouse in No 3 Rd. Bob, who died aged 84 in 2011, was well known in Te Puke as an outgoing personality, and for his involvement in both the growing and political sides of the kiwifruit industry, and for his harness horse-racing hobby. “He did pretty well and had more than 80 winners, says John. “Dad named horses after Te Puke locals, including Jim MacLoughlin and Barney Burt (for his own father) and Lucky Olivia, for a granddaughter. He was patron of the Bay of Plenty Horse Racing Club.” “The Burt family story is just one of the inspiring personal stories in the book. See page 30 for an insight into the ‘Seeds of Success’ new book.
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
Kiwifruit pioneer Bob Burt pictured with one of his harness horses. A keen breeder and trainer, he had a racetrack constructed on his Mark Rd orchard.
The book tells how the Burt family later converted a No 3 Rd farm from dairy to kiwifruit. “Passionfruit, tomatoes, beans, tree tomatoes, watermelon, sweetcorn and boysenberries were grown during conversion as cash crops to bring in an income. The orchard was the first to be contoured to make it flat enough to grow kiwifruit,” says John Burt, Bob’s son.
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
Kiwifruit vines were initially grown using the T-bar system, which was later replaced by the more efficient pergola system.
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A cheer to the pioneers past and present from Southern Cross Horticulture It’s been 60 years this June since the Chinese Gooseberry was officially renamed ‘Kiwifruit’ – we think that’s worth a cheer! Thanks to the original pioneers, we’ve been able to build a thriving kiwifruit industry and position New Zealand as a global leader in the field. The risks these pioneers took all those years ago formed the foundation for our success today. And it’s the hard-working teams across the industry – including Zespri, the pack houses and the many contractors – that continue to turn the kiwifruit dream into reality. Thank you!
At Southern Cross we’re proud to be part of this innovation journey. We’ve been growing things for over 150 years, with 43 years in kiwifruit and the last 20 specialising in the gold variety – and we’re ploughing on with our mission of creating the world’s best kiwifruit orchards. Southern Cross Horticulture – orchards that grow your wealth faster.
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Pioneer grower’s
death ended an era BY CAMERON SCOTT
T
he man described as the last of Te Puke’s pioneering kiwifruit growers, Walter Bayliss died in 2016 aged 90, ending an era for what has become a multi-billion dollar industry.
In a Bay of Plenty Times obituary, reporter John Cousins said kiwifruit were still known as Chinese gooseberries when Bayliss and his two brothers Jim and Graham joined Jim MacLoughlin to begin the first exports of the fruit, which flourished in the No 3 Rd soil. In a 2006 interview, Bayliss remembered his father Vic “taking a bit of a punt” in the 1950s and buying six plants from a man hawking a new type of fruit at a stock sale. When he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005 for his services to the industry, he had been the only person to grow and export fruit continuously for nearly 50 years. He and wife Fay moved from their No 3 Rd orchard in 1980 to a smaller block on No 4 Rd where he grew the once-prized Hort16A gold variety that was later to be devasted by Psa. Bayliss ripped out his vines and sold the block before the couple shifted to Greenwood Park retirement village in Welcome Bay in 2015.
Fay said they never dreamed the industry that the family helped pioneer back in 1950s would achieve global success. She said exports began after the brothers shared their ideas with neighbour Jim MacLoughlin. MacLoughlin exported the original consignment to London’s Covent Garden in 1952. Walter’s first export consignment left the port of Tauranga in 1956. Although amazed the growth of the kiwifruit industry, his strongest memories were of the exciting years of uncertainty when neighbour helped neighbour and they all wondered what the fruit’s export potential was going to be, and what they would achieve. Fay said the family tradition was carried on by their son, the late Rod Bayliss and his wife Anne. “Now all the original vines have passed on to new growers and newer ideas, and the Bayliss family has gracefully moved on.” Each of the three brothers contributed to the growth of the industry, with Walter Bayliss becoming a foundation director of the New Zealand Kiwifruit Marketing Licensing Authority. He told the Bay of Plenty Times in 2006 that he was never tempted to give up on kiwifruit, even when times were tough. “You could call me a dedicated grower who has stuck with it because I have faith in it. I do it still because I like growing plants, trees and shrubs.”
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
Kiwifruit pioneer the late Walter Bayliss reflects on almost 50 years of growing the fruit.
Firm but tender. Like our cargo care. The re-naming of Kiwifruit sixty years ago is certainly cause for celebration. In fact it’s a milestone we very nearly share. In October 1958 Hamburg Süd arrived in the Oceania and New Zealand trades. And since then, like the producers of this most delectable fruit, we’ve gone on to achieve great things. Kiwifruit is now one of New Zealand’s largest export earners – and we’re the leading primary produce carrier. That’s an honour we’ve earned, in large part, by focusing on failsafe cargo care systems to help nurture and protect the New Zealand brand. For hands-on help from our local experts: Outbound: 0508 222 444
No matter what. 20
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Eurofins is proud to be part of the 60 year celebration on the naming of kiwifruit. Eurofins, a global biosciences company, was founded in 1987 to market a patented, analytical method used to verify the origin and purity of food and beverages, including wine. In 2017, Eurofins acquired the Independent Kiwifruit Maturity Testing Laboratory from the Stevens family. Since the late 1990s, Ian Stevens and Agfirst Bay of Plenty Limited have provided maturity testing to the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. Over this time, Ian and his staff built a strong collaborative relationship with the industry to ensure that its current and future needs could be effectively met. Eurofins would like to acknowledge Ian Stevens and his team for laying the very strong foundations of a successful fruit maturity testing business. Eurofins has built on this legacy through its commitment and investment in young talent, innovation and the introduction of new technologies to support the rapid growth of the kiwifruit industry. Health and safety in this industry is high on the agenda. Getting staff home safely at the
end of each day is core to our operations. Seasonal labour employment is drawn from local communities and overseas working visitors. The company thrives in its engagement and active involvement with the community. By exposing young people to future opportunities, Eurofins is supporting horticulture being recognised as an attractive and rewarding career. Strong collaboration efforts with organisations and local schools have been established to build enduring partnerships. Eurofins also offers an extensive range of internship options to local and international students with exciting projects ranging from finance to innovation. These internships provide opportunities for learning and growth for both the interns and Eurofins as a company. For Eurofins, the kiwifruit season stretches further than the busy four months in New Zealand. Alongside Zespri, Eurofins provides offshore maturity testing support in Italy and France during their seasons. Highlighting what the kiwifruit industry has to offer, our staff value these opportunities to experience different processes and cultures.
07 549 1044 • www.eurofins.co.nz 21
Psa crisis
showed growers’ resilience BY CAMERON SCOTT
“This industry has learned resilience and has a real collective strength which allows it to be decisive and mature in the way it comes to its decisions.
G
rowers reacted with shock, disbelief, anger and uncertainty when Psa devastated Bay of Plenty kiwifruit orchards in 2010, says former New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI) chairman Peter Ombler.
“We had a duty to try and contain the disease initially, but I knew at an early stage that a wind-blown bacterial spore was unlikely to be contained by cutting out infected orchards.
Ombler, who headed the grower organisation from 2008 to 2011, says the kiwifruit industry had already weathered a crisis of a different kind. There had been widespread uncertainty about its future from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, as a result of unstable interest and exchange rates and increasing world supplies of kiwifruit. “However, the industry emerged from all of these challenges with a sense of unity and purpose, and a good deal of resilience. “These qualities were quickly on display during the Psa crisis and all facets of the industry quickly came together with a common purpose. There was industry and government support from a very early stage, and Kiwifruit Vine Health (KVH) was formed to take the industry through the crisis. “My position as chairman and as a grower was challenging, but I had great support from family, friends and colleagues.” Though it was a dark time for the kiwifruit industry, Ombler says he never at any time thought it was “all over”.
Hailstorms
“So we moved on as quickly as we could to the next phase of accepting that the North Island was destined to live with the disease on a permanent basis. Our energy needed to be invested in how to operate in this environment.” Teamwork was key to dealing with the crisis and Grower Support Network coordinator Ian Greaves deserves much praise for the work he did, says Ombler. “He and I played tag team in different roles to try to give growers hope and a sense of a way out of the Psa crisis. Increasingly, KVH took over in this area and Zespri also showed important leadership particularly in research and development. “In the end, it was about providing hope in what could have felt like a hopeless situation.” The investment the kiwifruit industry had been making for many years in the plant breeding programme produced options to replace Hort 16A (the previous gold variety) which was highly susceptible to Psa, Ombler says.
Psa affected vine.
“There was no certainty that G3 was going to be a success, but it looked a much better bet than Hort 16A, and this has proved to be the case. “The fact that the Te Puke region transitioned from Hort 16A to G3 in the space of two years is quite a staggering achievement and testimony to the industry’s unity.” For his outstanding services to the kiwifruit industry, Ombler received the
Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in 2013. He was awarded horticulture’s premier award, the Bledisloe Cup at the 2017 Horticulture Conference in recognition of his outstanding leadership through one of the industry’s most challenging times. During his NZKGI presidency Ombler was also instrumental in efforts to retain the kiwifruit industry’s single desk status.
added to growers’ woes
BY CAMERON SCOTT
industry politics and it had no certainty of longer term funding.
T
“The situation didn’t make sense, as KGI is a grower organisation, and growers should determine its future.
he PSA crisis was not the only challenge New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc faced when Peter Ombler was chairman of the organisation from 2008 to 2011.
He says orchards in the Te Puke area were hit with two serious hailstorms in May in consecutive years. “These exceeded the internal provision held for industry hail cover. However, we were able to encourage the wider industry to assist affected growers with a financial topup through support from other growers, yet another sign of empathy and unity. “Our greatest asset, the single desk structure (SPE), also came under attack from a corporate group and KGI took the lead on its defence. “This was a long, and sometimes bitter battle, but we eventually prevailed. “Many people within the industry assisted with defending this attack and the government was also very supportive. This was an important milestone in the history of the kiwifruit industry, and the combined strength and cooperation the SPE gives the industry was just as vital in the response to Psa.” Ombler says the NZKGI had previously depended on the industry to approve its funding annually. “This was a dangerous position, as it was exposed to potential risk from internal
22
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
“We took the risk of moving to the organisation being funded by a grower levy, which needs to be approved by a grower vote every five years. “We received strong support in our first vote which showed what the majority of growers thought of our performance as an organisation and the need to support us with their own money. “This was a momentous day for KGI.” Fast forward to today and the kiwifruit industry has never been stronger, says Ombler. “The future for fruit and vegetables with proven health benefits seems bright in an increasingly middle class and healthconscious world. “We need to continue to invest in the Zespri brand, and mitigate any risks and threats to it as best we can, which will require continuous energy and vigilance from all industry sectors, KGI included.” Ombler says a biosecurity breach caused the Psa crisis, and it is naive to think that there won’t be any issues in the future that could concern growers. “However I remain optimistic about this industry and I am pleased and proud to be a part of it.”
PHOTO / SUPPLIED
Peter Ombler.
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23
Packers pump
$225m into infrastructure BY CARMEN HALL
T
he Bay’s three largest kiwifruit packhouses have poured $225 million into infrastructure since 2014 in preparation for soaring levels of gold kiwifruit. Zespri data shows it will release 700ha of G3 SunGold and 50ha of SunGold Organic every year until 2022, subject to annual review. The packhouses had also posted record results as the industry celebrates boom times. EastPack chief executive Hamish Simson says it packed a record 41.1m trays of kiwifruit in 2018, up 23 per cent on the year before. Its operating profit almost doubled to $14.4m from $7.5m over the same timeframes.
Seeka chief executive Michael Franks says in 2018 it packed 31.4m trays of kiwifruit, 23 per cent more than the year before, while net profit after tax was $7.2m, up 27 per cent. The company also bought Aongatete Coolstores in the Western Bay for $25m in March and in April opened a new packhouse in Kerikeri, part of a $18.6m facility upgrade and investment into Northland.
“As a whole industry during Psa, we had to cope with low volumes and no profitability for two years. But we could all see the future, which put pressure on capital and everyone had to invest in infrastructure.”
Butler estimated Trevelyan’s would pack eight million trays of G3 and organic gold this year alongside about 6.8 million trays of class one green compared to eight million green and 6.7 gold kiwifruit trays in 2018.
Seeka had also spent about $100m on infrastructure across its sites since 2014, Franks said.
Since the recovery of Psa, from 2014 it had invested “a shade over $120m” into infrastructure and technology.
“Effectively we are getting ahead of the crop, but it’s a horticulture game and not without risk. We are always going to be subject to seasonal and market fluctuations. We are reasonably comfortable about the future; we know the risks but we are more than just kiwifruit ... that gives us some diversity.”
Significant investment had gone towards packing, pre-cool, and cool store capacity while in Te Puke it was constructing the first fully automated cool store in the industry with the capacity to store 1.2 million trays, he said.
Trevelyan’s Pack and Cool general manager Stephen Butler said it had spent about $35m on new infrastructure since Psa and had packed more gold kiwifruit than green this year.
“The temperature of fruit held in cool storage had progressed in leaps and bounds. If you manage the temperature well, you generate really good results.”
He said the speed G3 had come back following Psa was remarkable and with Zespri continuing to release licences, “the impact of that is still two to three years off”.
PHOTO / GEORGE NOVAK
Trevelyan’s Pack and Cool general manager Stephen Butler says it has spent about $35 million on infrastructure since Psa.
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Red kiwifruit
could be a game-changer BY CARMEN HALL
P
lant and Food Research breeds more than 10,000 kiwifruit cultivars for Zespri every year — and every year most of them will fail. But hopes are high for Zespri’s new red kiwifruit variety which is in the trial stage. The New Zealand market has already sampled 30,000 trays this year. Zespri cultivar innovation manager Bryan Parkes said there was a lot of excitement about the potential for a red kiwifruit.
It was still under consideration for larger scale commercial plantings, although there has been a limited release into supermarkets around the country earlier this year. “The limited release will allow Zespri to hear what consumers and retailers think about the fruit’s taste and storability which are important considerations for any future commercialisation.” Plant and Food Research new cultivar innovation general manager Zac Hanley said the aim was to find new varieties that were better than Hayward Green and G3 SunGold. “We are really ruthless.” They will whittle the 10,000 cultivars to about 100, in a process that takes five years. Those 100 are taken to different Plant and Food Research areas around the country,
including Te Puke, and grown on a small scale for another five years. “Only the best of the best [are selected] and not even one cultivar per year will be put forward for trial with real growers,” Hanley said. “There were a few red options because we didn’t want to put everything on one possibility, so there is some comparison work going on. Zespri will look at how it’s behaving with growers. “Every year growers get better at producing it, and they will look at how they will ship it. “It might need to be shipped quicker or at a cooler temperature and tested in different markets.
PHOTO / NZ HERALD
A limited number of trays of red kiwifruit were released on the New Zealand market this year. Zespri cultivar innovation manager Bryan Parkes says there is a lot of excitement about the distinctively coloured variety’s potential.
“They will gather all that information and then make the decision. “But ultimately it’s Zespri’s say, and if they say the industry is ready for that, we go for it,” Hanley said.
fantastic, and when we have done trials in Singapore, they were encouraging.”
Zespri chief grower and alliance officer Dave Courtney said red kiwifruit had the potential to bring in even more consumers than gold.
Courtney said Zespri would be releasing a red variety at some point. But from a full production point of view, that was years away.
He said it was too early to predict, but it could be a “game changer”. Following Psa “we actually almost had to restart our red programme again as we had a number in our trials, but Psa was particularly harsh on those varieties”.
“There is an expectation when we release varieties to the industry that we have done enough homework to give a good view or understanding of risks to growers so they can make informed decisions. We have a high bar to cross.”
“The feedback we are getting domestically has been really good. The taste is
Zespri chief innovation and sustainability officer Carol Ward said a promising
selection of reds and a new green kiwifruit was in pre-commercial trials at the moment. “Our customers are really excited to see new, great-tasting and healthy varieties that will help us grow the kiwifruit category around the world. “They taste great and the early indications are very positive but we also have to work through issues like their storability, considering they have to get from orchard here to overseas markets and into fruit bowls around the world.”
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Workers share stories
of life in kiwifruit world BY CARMEN HALL Psa cost Varinder Singh his house. The kiwifruit worker says he could not keep up with the mortgage payments. “It was too hard for us, and it really upset my family. They were sad. We were even thinking we would all have to move to Australia and what will happen to us?” He says the struggle lasted two years following the outbreak of Psa in 2010. Singh’s family of six, including his wife, his two children and his parents were worried about their future. Talking to the Bay of Plenty Times at a Tauranga orchard, Singh credits his current boss Braden Hungerford for helping pull through. “He saved us,” Singh says. Now he is the orchard supervisor and has bought another house in Te Puke. Clayton Pearson has left his wife Joanne and children Achilles and Arvah at home in the Solomon Islands. He will not see them again until September, but it’s a sacrifice the 32-year-old is
willing to make. Pearson is one of 2700 Recognised Seasonal Employer recruits based in the Western Bay for the kiwifruit season. “This job is really important for my family and I feel very lucky,” he says. The job at Seeka will enable him to pay for school fees, fuel, electricity bills and “take the children to the clinic quickly if they get sick”. It’s the third season Pearson has worked in the industry and this year he works nightshift on the strapping machine at Transpack. “I look after the pallet once the stackers finish building it. I like my job because I get to move around the packhouse and meet people who are really friendly.” Being away from loved ones is difficult, but Pearson catches up with them online. Calum Spankie is not afraid to make a change, and his career reflects his giveit-a-go attitude. The EastPack Edgecumbe site
manager says he has always enjoyed management but never imagined it would be in kiwifruit. In 2010 he moved back to Tauranga from Queensland following a job as the electrical manager for the largest trade exhibition company in Australia. He took a position running one of the grading lines at EastPack Quarry Rd and quickly progressed through the ranks, but says the industry took him by surprise. “Obviously, I could, there are a lot of challenges in this game and every year is different. I guess being quick on my feet and a fast learner really helped.” He also helps showcase the kiwifruit industry at local career expos. “We want to let people know there is some career progression.” Qian Ping is on a working visa and using the money she makes from packing kiwifruit to tour New Zealand. She has travelled from Malaysia with her sister, Qian Ni. It is their first kiwifruit season but they are familiar with the horticulture sector. The pair started in Hastings where they picked apples.
Ping said working at Trevelyan’s Pack & Cool was a far cry from her office job in Johor, but the 23-year-old was relishing the challenge. “It is very different, but I am enjoying it.” The duo plan to head to the South Island once the harvest ends. When one of Eric Northcote’s friends who played golf every day “popped off at age 77” it was a sooner-ratherthan-later moment. “We started to think we needed to do something now.” Northcote and his partner Sarah rented out their Kapiti Coast house five months ago and hit the road in their caravan. The 67-year-old is parked up at Trevelyan’s Pack & Cool camping ground. Both have jobs in the packhouse. “It’s hard yakka,” he says. At the end of the season, the couple plan to drive north and explore the bays. In the meantime, they are busy making friends. “We have met some amazing people, everyone is really friendly, and the facilities at the camping ground are fantastic. Everyone we have spoken to who is on the road says they just love it.”
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Iwi look to increase
stake in orchards BY CARMEN HALL
M
āori have stamped their mark on the kiwifruit industry with plans to increase their investment in the future by utilising more land.
Māori Kiwifruit Growers Inc chairman Tiaki Hunia said the group formed in 2016 to create a collective voice. “We have always maintained the view that what is good for Māori is great for the industry.” Its members, which include collective owners and iwi, account for more than 180 orchards in New Zealand. “Although they are predominantly in the Bay of Plenty, we have Māori orchards in Northland, Waikato, Gisborne, East Coast and Nelson, so there is a definite mix around the country. “A real key priority to us has always been about the best interest of our Māori growers and what value they can provide for the whole industry not just Māori for Māori.” Employment opportunities also existed across the sector. “We have always been focused on how can we move, support and progress our people to go from the orchard up and across the industry into managerial roles and into industry groups like Zespri. That is the bigger picture and there is a labour challenge for the industry and the whole country.” He hoped Māori would become influential and make a substantial contribution by utilising Māori culture and thinking.
Māori landowners needed to be more active as the Māori economy continues to go from strength to strength, he said. “I’ve always thought the most important part of the growing Māori economy is the confidence of the landowners to do things differently to become more active. In the past, they have been quite passive, as in leasing out.” A great example in action was happening at Te Kaha, he said. “You know it’s an amazing story around the growth of the gold kiwifruit in particular on what was historically maize land. They have taken that on through partnerships and joint ventures as well as their own individual whanau developments. “I see lots of opportunities around the country as we have land where the environment and the climate are conducive to kiwifruit,” Hunia said. “I think going forward you will see more of these kinds of new greenfield developments popping up on Māori land.” Māori accounted for about 10 per cent of Zespri’s kiwifruit and are eying up 20 per cent of volumes in the future. “Even though we jumped from 8 to 10 per cent in the last two years, people might say that isn’t much. But we have gone from 10 million trays in 2016 to 15 million trays in 2018, so that is a 50 per cent increase.”
PHOTO / FILE
Taiki Hunia, chairman of the Māori Kiwifruit Growers Incorporation.
In June last year three North Island iwi-based companies Te Arawa Group Holdings (Rotorua); Rotoma No 1 Incorporation (Rotorua), and Ngāti Awa Group Holdings (Whakatāne) bought Matai Pacific’s vast kiwifruit portfolio. The large-scale property deal included three separate mid to large-sized productive blocks at Te Puke: Te Matai
Orchard, Pacific Gold Orchard and Coachman Orchard. The three blocks owned by the Matai Pacific Iwi Collective cover nearly 100 canopy hectares and were expected to produce up to 1.3 million trays of kiwifruit. According to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, 38 per cent of the region’s land is owned by Māori, with 1800 Māori Land Trusts managing these assets.
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27
Research institute
aims to shake up agtech BY CARMEN HALL
M
illions of dollars are being pumped into a horticulture research institute in Tauranga which aims to take the agtech sector by storm. PlantTech will focus on applying cutting edge artificial intelligence and machine learning to the scientific challenges in New Zealand’s horticulture industry. The institute has been welcomed by Zespri, which is already leading the world with its innovation and research programme in which it invests about $35 million a year.
PlantTech Research Institute chief executive officer Mark Begbie says the institute wants to leverage the Western Bay of Plenty’s strengths in plant-based value chains, robotics and autonomous systems to ensure the horticulture industry stays ahead of the game. It is working with the University of Waikato and other tertiary partners and has secured an $8.42m start-up fund from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment alongside $1m over three years from the industry. “The institute will engage the next generation and help equip them for
the future of a research intensive industry. “The Bay of Plenty naturally lends itself to being a test bed for research and technology development that could potentially transform plantbased value chains and regional economic performance. “Leveraging these strengths will allow us to ensure the horticulture industry remains ahead of the inevitable economic, environmental, biosecurity, climate change and crop health challenges that lie ahead,” he said. PlantTech was established in February 2018 but did not officially open till May. Zespri chief innovation and sustainability officer Carol Ward said PlantTech would complement its efforts to improve orchard productivity and address environmental and labour challenges. “PlantTech is a collaboration between different organisations in the Bay of Plenty which have come together to bring new digital technologies into plant production. “We’re very excited about the opportunities to help develop new agricultural technology, and better utilise existing ones, to build dataled decision making into orchard management, improving productivity.
PHOTO / ANDREW WARNER
PlantTech Institute chief executive Mark Begbie is excited about the new venture which will benefit the horticulture sector.
“The new Regional Research Programme, in partnership with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, will help transform plant-based value chains, and improve regional economic performance.” Tauranga mayor Greg Brownless said it was good Tauranga was at the forefront of new technology. “Anything that makes our industries and businesses more efficient and productive is great. It is probably stuff that we can’t even imagine that is being developed as we speak.”
About PlantTech: • The partners are Bluelab, Cucumber, GPS-It, Eurofins, Robotics Plus Ltd, Trimax Mowing Systems, Waka Digital, Zespri International, the University of Waikato and Priority One. • Currently recruiting for up to six researchers. • By 2023 it aims to have a staff of about 18, with the additional roles all being technical in nature.
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29
Seeds
of Success BY ELAINE FISHER
T
hree brothers, each with a talent for horticulture; a seven-yearold boy who with his 12-year-old brother escaped their homeland in 1938 when Japan invaded China and orchard ventures transforming iwi land and lives are among the stories which feature in the book “Seeds of Success – the stories of New Zealand’s Kiwifruit Pioneers”. Commissioned by New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc to mark its 25th anniversary, and written by award winning journalist Elaine Fisher, the book traces the personal stories of growers involved in the highly successful kiwifruit industry, which owes its beginnings to a handful of seeds. In 1904, Wanganui school teacher Isabel Fraser brought home from China seeds which were propagated by keen horticulturalist Alexander Allison and later Hayward Wright, a talented nurseryman of Auckland, selected the variety which today bears his name. By the early 1950s enterprising Te Puke orchardists were exporting the greenfleshed fruit to Europe and the USA, laying the foundations for today’s highly successful $2.3 billion industry. Author Elaine Fisher, who travelled New Zealand’s kiwifruit growing regions, interviewing orchardist, exporters and post-harvest operators says among those in the book are Graham, Jim and Walter
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Bayliss of Te Puke who each played roles in shaping today’s industry and Joe Ngan, one of Kerikeri’s “elder statesmen”. The joint venture orchards on Ma- ori land at Te Kaha and orchards developed at Matapihi by the Ngai Tukairangi Trust which reflect the significant contributions Ma- ori agri-business make to the industry also feature. “These are just a few of the inspiring stories in the book of the people who have made, and continue to make, the New Zealand kiwifruit industry the success that it is,” says Elaine. The book also records how today’s major and sophisticated post-harvest companies have emerged to replace the small, simple packhouses once found on nearly every orchard. The heady boom times of the 1970s and the exporters involved in launching New Zealand kiwifruit on the international stage also feature and the crisis years of the late 1980s to mid-1990s are told through the eyes of those who helped pull the industry back from the brink of disaster. Attractively designed, with excellent use of images, this book is an engaging read and an important record of one of the world’s most successful, and newest fresh fruit industries. “Seeds of Success – the stories of New Zealand’s Kiwifruit Pioneers” will be launched at a gala dinner on July 3, 2019 in Tauranga as part of NZKGI’s anniversary celebrations. To pre-order your copy visit the NZKGI website www.nzkgi.org.nz
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Seeds of Success will be launched on July 3.
Armillaria Armillaria is a soil borne disease which spreads from vine to vine through infected roots. If left unattended, the disease continues to spread and infect surrounding vines, eventually killing the infected plants. Sluicing is an effective control of Armillaria. Key indicators for identifying Armillaria are yellowing of leaves and small fruit, lack of new growth in the leader zone, weeping and flaking bark at the base of the plant and vine collapse mid season with fruit. Beneath the bark is wet mushy rot with a strong mushroom smell. Armillaria can be treated at anytime of year but is more noticeable in Spring and Summer as plants come under stress due to fruit development. Early diagnosis and treatment will benefit the plant and save vines.
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