HB Today - Pick of Hawkes Bay 2019

Pick of

Hawke’s Bay 2019

Pick of

Hawke’s Bay

Leanne Cotter-Arlidge and partner John are enjoying the opportunity to experience life on a remote Pacific island.

Coffee island style

By Leanne Cotter-Arlidge and Chrys Ayley

A

ore Island is a remote South Pacific island with minimal infrastructure. It’s situated in northern Vanuatu not far from Espiritu Santo.

The flight from Auckland to Luganville with a stop in Vila is 3 hours and 45 minutes.

It’s here that a Hawke’s Bay couple Leanne Cotter-Arlidge and partner John have invested in Aore Island Coffee comprising an organic coffee plantation of 10 acres, a coffee roastery and café. They also run coffee tours to view WWII bunkers, massive banyans and wild coffee in the jungle behind their plantation.

Aore Island Coffee was an existing business and they found the business for sale on the internet.

A couple who owned the Robert Harris business in its early days had set up a joint venture with the NZ High Commission to fund a coffee cooperative initiative.

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“The cooperative was established to train some of the local Ni-Vanuatu families into sourcing coffee cherry and processing it to green bean stage. It guaranteed bean for the coffee roasting business and we liked the idea of helping the local people to gain a sustainable income,” Leanne says.

While they didn’t know much about coffee the couple’s work experience includes 25 years of living on vineyards. John has a viticulture and horticulture background and Leanne has an active interest in organic vegetable growing.

John completed the inaugural viticulture and winemaking course at the EIT in the late eighties.

They moved to France in the early 1990’s as John had a rugby contract with La Voulte Sportif. They both worked in a boutique Methode Champenoise winery for Jean-Francois Chaboud in St Peray.

Once back in New Zealand John managed Moteo Vineyards and then Morton Estate Vineyards at Crownthorpe. “As far as our coffee knowledge, we got a taste for real coffee from our France days and have been to loads of cafes around the world – that’s about all the knowledge we had!”

The couple had planned to do something different once their two children were both at university. “Our son is in his final year at Lindisfarne and our daughter is at Canterbury University so the opportunity, although early, was there and we decided to commit financially with a business partner to share the running of the business.

“We took full possession in January and John spent six months fully immersed on the island learning the ropes. He is now a proficient coffee roaster and can make a mean coffee!

“I’ve had three visits this year in between a major home renovation of our villa in Napier and our son schooling here in Hawke’s Bay. We now have a manager in place in Vanuatu for the medium term and also a business partner to allow us flexibility in living between New Zealand and Vanuatu.”

The island itself was taken over by the French in the 1930’s and they created coffee, cocoa and coconut plantations. The New Hebrides became Vanuatu in July 1980 and when the French departed the land was returned to the indigenous owners.

“The Ni-Vanuatu people had little experience in growing the crops and the coffee trees became overgrown and wild. Seed spread by birds resulted in coffee trees covering many hilly parts of the island,” she says.

“Today, the wild, spray-free coffee is harvested and processed by our Ni-Vanuatu cooperative families for our roastery.

“We also have plantings which give us some bean supply but it is not sizeable enough to be our sole source of green bean. Our market is mainly in Vanuatu where we supply roasted coffee beans and ground coffee to resorts, supermarkets and wholesale distributors in Santo and Port Vila.”

Leanne says that the Ni-Vanuatu people live in relative poverty compared to the NZ lifestyle with an hourly wage of 200 vatu, around NZ$2.40. Work can be difficult to find, especially in remote areas.

“The symbiotic relationship with the Ni-Vanuatu people in assisting with developing coffee processing skills and creating employment on the

island is definitely a win-win situation. We also truly believe in the product and its sustainability, it tells a complete ‘feel-good’ story and that has huge appeal.

All tourism ventures in Vanuatu require employing a Ni-Vanuatu person and the couple has a wonderful caretaker family on the plantation who works with them.

“They are crucial to our survival as a business and they are also fantastic people.”

In the future, Leanne and John hope to be able to spend part of the year on Aore and to find time for travel to other coffee growing regions. They plan to export coffee into New Caledonia, Fiji and eventually New Zealand.

Pick of

Hawke’s Bay

Visitors enjoy a trip in the jungle.

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Organic growing-one size Hawke’s Bay doesn’t fit all

Pick of

By Chrys Ayley

R

umour has it that Sam Reynolds regularly sings to his organic onions to encourage them to flourish. If only it were that simple.

Sam is the Organic Cropping Manager for Bostock New Zealand. He oversees all organic

This year Sam Reynolds and the team will be experimenting with beneficial flower strips.

growing at Bostocks but it’s onions that have recently captured his attention as he, along with two other team members, recently returned from a trip to Europe. They were there to witness the arrival of their first ever commercial organic onion crop being delivered to European consumers.

“There’s a window in the market with only Egypt and Spain supplying Europe so the Europeans are glad to have a supply from New Zealand,” Sam says. It’s a gap they can fill from mid-April to mid-July every year. They learnt new techniques from growers and service companies that will help refine Bostock’s growing techniques, reduce growing costs and improve quality.

Sam admits that growing organic onions is “hard” although their first commercial crop harvested from 17ha was well received in Europe. But behind the success lies much trial as there is not one right way to commercially grow organic crops. “You’ve got to be pretty creative as one size doesn’t fit all with organic growing,” he says.

Seed selection is a critical part of the technology and because they don’t use any chemicals or sprays it’s crucial to source seeds

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resistant to downy mildew. It’s an expensive business all round with seeds, investment in specialist equipment and frequent weeding.

Sam, who was raised on a sheep and beef farm in Central Hawke’s Bay went on to gain a BA majoring in history and media, film and communications. His idea was to start one career and move on to farming a bit later in life but that didn’t happen.

Before joining Bostock New Zealand last September Sam worked growing crops traditionally. He spent three years with the Clinton Foundation in Tanzania, then Italy and the UK for about two years. He’d been keeping an eye on Bostocks from afar and while he had an interest in organic growing wanted to experience traditional growing first.

“In organic growing everything starts with a healthy soil. It has to be built up without chemicals and that’s achieved with manure, compost and green manure crops like mustard and a mixture of root crops and grains.”

This year they will be experimenting with beneficial crop mixes and beneficial flower strips including sunflowers to attract good insects like ladybirds that in turn eat pests like thrips.

Chicken manure is added to the soil which is then cultivated to a fine seed bed and weeds are allowed to grow. The onion seeds are planted and just before they emerge from the soil the weeds are burnt with natural gas. That leaves a gap of about three weeks weed free, Sam says.

They do use highly sophisticated weeding machines and GPS technology but the machines don’t get too close to the onions as they will be

damaged. Onions are grown in Twyford, Fernhill and Havelock North and close to harvest time over 200 seasonal staff hand weed each onion paddock!

Why not just leave the weeds to grow? There are many reasons such as disease prevention and nutrition competition.

“If you’re not on top of controlling the weeds they can take over in a week and then all’s lost,” Sam says.

Growing crops organically is a huge investment as it has to be done on an economic scale. Bostocks are increasing organic crop numbers for example, apples, onions and squash. The demand for “Orange Summer” pumpkins is increasing and export volumes to Europe has increased due to demand.

Locally the organic onions are available at Countdown.

The large onions are packaged in home compostable netting bags made from sustainable wood fibre and even the labels are compostable. The natural fibre nets also regulate humidity and moisture, so are excellent for packaging onions as they are breath hab ble and d moisture regulating.

“While organic fruit and vegetables do cost more there’s so much more work and love that goes into producing organic crops and our challenge is to educate the consumer.”

Pick of

Hawke’s Bay

John Bostock and Sam Reynolds proudly display their first commercial crop of organic onions.

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Pick of

Hawke’s Bay

Protect, Foster and Promote

By Ben James President of the Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers Association.

W

ith spring here growers in Hawke’s Bay have turned their attention to the coming crop with budbreak well underway. As we move towards the hotter months of the year our soils have not returned to full point meaning soil moisture and lack of rainfall is concerning.

Youth training and development is a big priority for the HBFA. Currently with over 130 apprentices and cadets this area has been a successful one for Hawke’s Bay. With the current rate of expansion people are in high demand. People to grow the crop, people to supervise and run harvest teams, people to process accounts and manage budgets, people to sell, market and deliver our goods.

There are so many career pathways in horticulture and we (the HBFA) are work king alongside other industry bodies to educate people about these great opportunities and change the perception that horticulture is just about picking apples.

Urban sprawl and housing encroaching on our fertile production soil is an area that the HBFA plays strongly in. We are constantly defending developers plans and proposals to “unlock” further land for building. The HBFA

Mr Apple NZ is the largest vertically integrated apple grower, packer and exporter in New Zealand and employ 400 permanent staff and over 2000 in the peak season. There are a wide variety of seasonal employment opportunities available in the Napier, Hastings and Central Hawkes Bay areas. We also offer horticulture apprenticeships and are currently taking applications for next year’s intake.

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looks forward to seeing the National Policy Statement for highly productive land as this will align regional and district councils across the country.

Air quality in Hawke’s Bay has been a hot topic this winter with some air quality concerns.

Despite the media attention growers in Hawke’s Bay generally follow the best practice guidelines as agreed by industry and HBRC in 2016.

HBFA and NZAPI have been engaged with the HBRC to better understand the issues that have arisen this year. Yes, some people have been caught not being responsible, burning plastics and tanalised timber products. No sympathy is given in these situations by any party. Best practice guidelines must be followed. Industry will be holding some education days around new sustainable practices in this space so keep an eye out.

The best practice guidelines can be found at www.hbfruitgrowers.co.nz/documents/outdoorburning-best-practice guidelines The HBFA has a new structure. We have four sub-committees set up to focus on our three pillars, Protect, Foster and Promote. The fourth sub-committee is our commercial committee looking after our property investments. These new sub-committees have allowed more engagement to take place and higher specialization in these respective areas.

EIT Horticulturalist of the Year Field Day Save the date

It was an absolute honour and a privilege, and a humbling experience, for Leon and Robyn Stallard to learn that they were the first ever recipients of the Horticentre Trust Hawke’s Bay Horticulturist of the Year Award. They received the award in late March at the 2019 Napier Port Hawke’s Bay Primary Sector Awards.

The award recognises an outstanding individual who has made a significant contribution to horticulture through innovation, resilience and leadership along with their commitment to education, the environment and their social responsibility.

Leon and Robyn are amongst the most highly respected orchardists in Hawke’s Bay with a commitment to continually passing on knowledge through leadership and advocacy at both a local and national level, along with supporting the future of young orchardists in Hawke’s Bay. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the Stallards, view their property and network with members of the Hawke’s Bay horticultural community.

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Pick of

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Pick of

Hawke’s Bay

Absolutely perfect for Hawke’s Bay

By Chrys Ayley

A

chance meeting between a software developer and a chemist, both contracted to work at a local woolscourers in 2014, culminated in Greg Duncan and Dr Nick Wall joining forces to investigate the feasibility of extracting pyrethrin from a white daisy known as Pyrethrum.

The extracts are used in insect control products.

Greg Duncan seen here on his lifestyle block with a crop of pyrethrum.

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Five years on and PyrethrumNZ is a rapidly growing business looking to build a new factory locally to cope with increasing worldwide demand for their oil and their insecticide PYNZ28. They are also seeking farmers interested in contract growing pyrethrum to help them keep up with demand.

In this era of increasing environmental consciousness the pair has hit on an innovative solution to the damage that systemic insecticides wreak on the environment. “It is time for a change.

We must learn to work with nature, not against her,” Greg says.

Greg lives on a 2.25 ha (5 acres) lifestyle block not far from Havelock North. They started with 1,000 plants established on Greg’s land in March 2015 and waited to see if they would grow, what the irrigation requirements were and to discover the optimal growing requirements. It was quite a wait as the crop takes 18 months to mature.

They knew that pyrethrum grew well at altitude in Africa but that’s because the plants need a period of cold weather. About 70 % of the world’s production originates in Australia, mainly in Tasmania with more being cultivated as it’s becoming increasingly popular.

As it transpires pyrethrum is very suitable for the Hawke’s Bay climate as they love the heat, the dry and the cold winters. “As far as irrigation is concerned it’s very tolerant to not having

water. There are a few weaknesses: they don’t their own manufacturing. We also specialize in supplying one off formulations,” Greg says. like too much water or humidity as it encourages It’s not all been plain sailing, far from it as it’s an crown rot,” Greg says. expensive, not to say time consuming, business to Initially they hand-picked the daisies then meet regulations. They have just received Assure progressed to using hedge trimmers and now Quality approval. they use a harvest machine designed by Feilding Pyrethrum is a good crop for farmers to grow based Harvester Concepts. as the flowers are harvested in December and “Pyrethrum is a contact insecticide. It breaks then sheep can graze on the left overs (much down really rapidly and is suitable for places like a lawn mower) and receive the benefits of where really low toxicity is necessary. There’s only anthelmintic action of the pyrethrum. Greg and a one day withholding period which makes it ideal Nick will need a greater supply in the not too for shipping containers. It is also used on kiwifruit, distant future. avocados and as a wash for fruit in packhouses.”

“Pyrethrum is the insecticide that doesn’t www.pyrethrum.nz persist in the soil or on the products on which it is sprayed. It rapidly breaks down to become inert in the environment. It does the job and then it’s gone. It is what an insecticide should be.”

Clients are based in Russia, Israel and Australia and there has been great interest from Korea as regulations regarding crop residues are getting tighter. That’s one of the reasons the pressure is on to build the new factory.

New Zealand is viewed by Asians as being clean and green. This is a clean green product so its market value is increased because it is perceived to be better because it is from New Zealand.

“We sell our own brand of insecticide for home and industrial use and this has been very successful for us. But our main focus is supplying industrial Greg and Dr Nick Wall will need a greater supply of pyrethrum consumers with wholesale oil for use in in the not too distant future.

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EIT graduate builds stellar wine Hawke’s Bay estate in France

Pick of

N

ine years ago Graeme Bott completed his viticulture and wine science degree at EIT. In 2010 he moved to Côte-Rôtie in France to work for well-known Rhone wine producer, Stephane Ogier. “Syrah was the variety which interested me the most which is why I wanted to discover the Northern Rhone Valley, the birth place of Syrah,” says Graeme.

This work experience led to a fairy tale-like story and an obsession for a wine that according to Graeme has no peer. Graeme became a winemaker for Domaine Stephane Ogier and

Graeme and Julie Bott created a successful wine estate in one of France’s most famous wine regions.

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worked there for eight years. Then, as life goes, he met his now wife Julie who was the sales director and their common passion in wine opened a new chapter.

Originally the couple didn’t even dream of owning their own vineyard. Land prices in the region have skyrocketed in the last 20 years, and most of the land in the famous appellations is already cultivated. “Not to mention the fact that, to have a chance in the business here, you have to be born into a family with an existing estate or land holdings,” Graeme says.

Hunting for a suitable property, Graeme and Julie found a small house up the hillside of Verin.

They discovered that the 3500m2 terraced forest around the house was in the Condrieu appellation.

It was a now or never moment, and they had no hesitation in buying it.

Graeme and Julie started to actively look for more unplanted land to create their own domain. “We spent every minute analysing the appellations, areas and plots that had not yet been planted since established vineyards were unaffordable and rarely go up for sale.” Once found they did all the land preparation and planning by hand.

Their first wines, 3000 bottles produced from the 2016 harvest, were vinified in their garage.

The same happened in the following two years.

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their vineyards coming into operation. At the beginning of 2019 the Botts rented a winery in Ampuis where they are currently installing their tanks and cooling ready for the upcoming harvest.

The plan for the next five years is to produce 35,000-40,000 bottles a year.

Since 2015 the couple has been able to purchase 6.5ha of land, consisting of more than 50 plots. They planted their vineyards in the appellations of Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Saint-Joseph and Seyssuel which was hugely challenging.

All their hard work paid off. Recently Graeme and Julie won the award for Vigneron and Terroir D’Avenir which is similar to Winery of the year/ Winemaker of the future. They were selected first of all for the wines they are producing and secondly for their project having planted vineyards in the appellations around them. “We have also planted vines in Seyssuel which is considered an exciting terroir of the future. We are part of a group of winemakers who are redeveloping this area which will shortly pass into an appellation,” says Graeme.

“Receiving this award was incredibly humbling. Building our domain in a region where it seemed impossible, especially as I’m not originally from there, still feels a bit surreal.”

There is no doubt about the fact that Graeme and Julie have found their happy place. “What I love about France and our region is the richness of the terroir. The soils change so rapidly and that is reflected in the wines. Here, wine is more than just a passion, it’s a way of life. It’s crazy to think that wine was made from these vineyards hundreds if not thousands of years ago,” says Graeme.

“Our favourite wine is Côte-Rôtie. It’s hard to believe that we actually own a couple of small parcels here and we planted vines in this appellation. When I started my career in wine I would have never even dreamed that it would take me that far.”

For more information visit www.domainebott.fr

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Pick of

Hawke’s Bay

Orcharding is all about people

By Chrys Ayley

R

egan Judd, Winner of the Hawke’s Bay Young Fruitgrower of the Year, was first introduced to horticulture while schooling in the Rangitikei. He had an excellent teacher who encouraged his interest in growing and promoted horticulture as a career.

The 23-year-old went on to gain a Bachelor of AgriScience in Horticulture from Massey University in Palmerston North and graduated in May 2017.

He was fortunate to be selected for the T&G Graduate Programme and moved to Hawke’s Bay where he’s now a Senior Leading Hand at T&G Pipfruit working at the Bakers Bridge block on Tukituki Road, Haumoana. Quite a contingent of his fellow students from Massey also moved to the Bay to work in horticulture.

Hawke’s Bay Young Fruitgrower of the Year, Regan Judd.

Photo courtesy HortNZ

This year was Regan’s first attempt at the Hawke’s Bay Young Fruitgrower competition and he beat seven other contestants to win the title. He had competed in T&G competitions and took part in the Gisborne Young Fruitgrower competition last year which gave him an idea of what to expect.

The competition is an awesome opportunity to learn and meet new people. In preparation for this year’s event In Hawke’s Bay he spoke to others who had competed to find out what sort of challenges might be presented and questions asked. “You always get a question you haven’t prepared for.”

Preparing for the competitions gives Regan the opportunity to learn new facts and to meet new people. He’s already formed quite a few new relationships with other competition goers.

Regan’s winning speech was on how or whether industry workplaces should pay the living wage.

This involved considerable research and he unashamedly says it was quite an emotive speech in favour of paying the living wage.

He goes on to represent Hawke’s Bay at the Young Grower of the Year competition in Tauranga on 1 and 2 October where there are substantial prizes for the winners. Finalists are made up of the winners of the six regional Young Grower competitions held in Pukekohe, the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Nelson and Central Otago. T&G has been really supportive with time and contacts to help increase his knowledge base. He’s now brushing up on his knowledge for the Young Grower competition and expects to be assigned a project in the next week or so.

Regan was brought up on a dairy farm. “It’s not overly different, you’re still outside, it’s just a different type of crop,” he says. “Dairy farming is all about growing grass so it’s always something to fall back on.”

He says the key difference between orcharding and dairy farming is that working in orchards is all about people, whereas dairy farming is quite a solitary lifestyle.

There are two major aspects about the work he enjoys: meeting people from all walks of life and working outdoors. During harvest they can have 50-60 people running in four or five teams. He gets to work with locals, RSE workers and, in the past while working on a summer fruit orchard he also worked with backpackers. As a leading hand he sprays, prunes, supervises teams and trains new staff. “The people aspect is a massive part of what we do.”

Taking pride in nurturing the apples is also extremely enjoyable. “It’s pretty cool to see the fruit growing, from pruning, to flowering, watching the apple grow and then seeing the final result when you pick it. Apples taste so much better just off the tree, the same as summer fruit.”

In his leisure time Regan enjoys hunting and the opportunity to “get away from civilisation”. He mainly hunts deer but has also done some tahr hunting in the South Island. He grew up tramping so hunting seemed like a natural progression.

Regan suggests that if you like working outdoors, and with people, there’s a huge opportunity in horticulture and orcharding for people willing to work hard and learn. “You’ve still got to get the job done whether it’s frosty or 30° in the summer.”

At only 23 Regan doesn’t have any solid career goals preferring to work hard in his chosen career and see what happens.

“There are so many apples being planted at the moment so if you know how to grow apples you’re doing pretty well.”

Regan takes pride in nurturing apples.

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“There’s a lot to apples. I’m only really beginning to understand it now.”

g n i w Gro ier h t l a He tures Fu PROUDLY GROWING IN THE HAWKE’S BAY

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Class of 2019 continues Hawke’s Bay to shine

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s spring pops up over the horizon here in Hawke’s Bay, out in the vineyards work is underway with the next vintage 2020. After pruning through the winter months, we start to see the first signs of the new growing season around our region.

Back in the wineries it is early days yet for most 2019 wines, but a few months into maturation and the class of the 2019 Hawke’s Bay vintage continues to shine.

Hugh Crichton, Chief Winemaker at Vidal Estate stated “Even at their early stage of development the 2019 wines show an approachability, but they also show the quality traits required for long term aging. We often see the gangly characters of youth in our wines at the early stages of development, but in 2019 we seem to have skipped this stage. Our wines from 2019 continue to move into the position of our greatest vintage ever.”

Over at Craggy Range, Chief Winemaker Julian Grounds is in awe of the scale of energy, presence and future in the wines thus far. “Chardonnay is

showing so much vitality, complexity and length.

Bordeaux varietals have such purity, magnitude and ripeness - sure to be stand outs for years to come.”

However, for Julian “the Syrahs are showing to be potentially the wines to rival - the depth, the balance of ripe tannins and the bouquet! We will let time take its course, but look to the blending and bottling of these wines with great anticipation.”

It’s still a while to go yet until we see their full potential, but Warren Gibson of Trinity Hill noted “Chardonnay and Syrah seem to be the stars at this stage. 2019 appears to have some of the highlight characters of each of the 2009, 2010 and 2014 vintages to me even though they were quite different seasons: aromatic and ripe, with the reds showing supple tannins and concentration.”

Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Chair Sally Duncan said “The 2019 wines will affirm Hawke’s Bay as one of the great wine regions of the world, recognised in particular for its Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blends. Great wines offer drinkability when young, but they also have the ability to age well, improving with time.”

Duncan concluded with “There is a real buzz building as we see the first 2019 wines hit the market and at the same time the release of some of the premium showcase wines from 2018 – also a stellar vintage for Hawke’s Bay.” Courtesy of Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers

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Your exclusive distributor for ABSOGER Horticultural equipment in New Zealand & Australia Portable Nitrogen Generators Fixed/Portable Ethylene Scrubbers C02 Scrubbers Portable C02 / 02 and Ethylene Analysers Fixed C02 / 02 Controls and Fixed Ethylene Analysers Carbon Analysis and Replacement KIMO range of Portable Devices FORIS Index Doors.

Hort Air Services’ complete range of equipment is dedicated to fruit and vegetable preservation.

We offer equipment leasing, sales and servicing, staff training and expertise in construction of CA rooms. We are the largest privately owned and family operated business leasing portable nitrogen generators and ethylene scrubbers in New Zealand.

Hort Air Services also specialise in all your onsite nitrogen requirements and industrial analyser’s for the Petroleum, Mining, Viticulture and General Industrial Applications.

Jason Anderson – +64 27 2959 623 PO Box 4656, Mt Maunganui South 3149 Email: jason@hortair.co.nz • www.hortair.com

15

Features, power and performance In A SIZE BUILT FOR YOU. 5076EN

• 75Hp, diesel engine • 12F/12R PowrReverserTM transmission • Standard 4WD • Dual rear SCVs • Shiftable 540/540E PTO • Narrow configuration

Sta tar arrtttiiinnngg frrooom m

59,990 9 +GST

*$

5085GL

• 85Hp, diesel engine • 24F/24R PowrReverserTM transmission with mechanical Hi-Lo *$ • Standard 4WD • High performance, low height • Extended 5 year / 3000 hour, powertrain warranty^ (Limited Time Only)

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9 +gst 59,990

STOP INTO YOUR LOCAL CERVUS BRANCH TODAY OR VISIT US ONLINE TO LEARN MORE. bit.ly/cervus5gseries

0800 333 734

CervusEquipment.co.nz Conditions Apply. *Price listed is GST exclusive. Photos are for illustrative purposes only and some features may not be available on NZ models. ^Warranty is for the 5085GL model only. 5 year/3000 hours (whichever comes first). Offer valid until 31

December 2019. See website for more information on the LIMITED WARRANTY FOR NEW JOHN DEERE UTILITY EQUIPMENT. Prices subject to change without prior notice.