NZ Grower Magazine

HortNZ’s new president

Future for smart farmers

Amazon Fresh

Fresh tomatoes

Julian Raine

Andrew Fenton

Internt giant eyes fresh produce

“Huge room for growth”

Industry honours pioneers Vol 68 • No 7 • August 2013

Horticulture New Zealand

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August contents

48 Future looks bright for those who know their onions In this issue...

MPA Associate Member

REGULARS

Research and development projects are facilitated

by Horticulture New Zealand and supported by the commodity levy.

President’s word

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Your levy at work

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NZGrower magazine is produced by Horticulture New Zealand and is free for all levy payers.

For more information visit: www.hortnz.co.nz or NZGrower Freephone: 0508 467 869 HortNZ President

Julian Raine

HortNZ CEO

Peter Silcock

New board member up and lobbying 6

Features Ford

32

Grower to grower

67

What’s New

72

Communications Leigh Catley Manager leigh.catley@hortnz.co.nz

ph: 04 470 5665

Graphic Design Mayfly Design & Molehill Creations

Gini Peck

Ph: 021 081 17399 Print Format Subscriptions info@hortnz.co.nz

for subscription information

see back page

PRODUCT GROUPS Asparagus Council

The individual comments and views in this magazine do not necessarily represent the view of Horticulture New Zealand.

ISSN: 2230-2700 Cover: Joe and Fay Gock philanthropists, innovators and truly humble people, have won the Bledisloe Cup for 2013. Page 18.

Including horticulture in New Zealand’s future

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Drugs – sobering facts for employers 14 Outstanding pioneers win horticulture’s top honour

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The “white hot vegetable”

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New Potatoes New Zealand Inc board members elected

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Tomatoes strategy “unquestionably challenging”

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NZ “shooting itself in the foot”

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GIA “will it be used?”

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Incursions threaten $10b by 2020

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MPI “getting tough” on freight

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Psa’s economic and social cost

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Pesky pests and giant snails

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Japanese eyes on our boysenberries 45 www.hortnz.co.nz

Vol 68 No 7

Produce at front line of retail battle 10

“Huge room for fresh tomato growth” 28

Research and Innovation Board 58

To have your say email: info@hortnz.co.nz attention Editor NZ Grower

Horticulture New Zealand is funded by your commodity levy to support your right to farm and improve the business environment in which you work.

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Potatoes unveils pathway for success 20

Editor Sue Grant-Mackie sue.grant-mackie@hortnz.co.nz

ph: 04 470 5663 Advertising Debbie Pascoe dpascoe@hortnz.co.nz

ph/fax: 09 236 3260,

“Smart farmers will have a future”

Scan me

Future looks bright for those who know their onions

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Intensive cropping: dealing with reality

64

Report confirms drought worst in nearly 70 years

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Wind chill and the July 14 Storm

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Back to business for T&G

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Contents

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Julian Raine President

We make this industry work by working together My name is Julian Raine, and I am the new president of Horticulture New Zealand.

The first words in this column will be a bit about myself and an explanation of why I wanted this job.

Nelson has been my home for most of my life. I have been involved in horticulture for over 30 years. I am a partner in Wai-West Horticulture growing apples, boysenberries and kiwifruit on 140 hectares, and in Hinetai Hops growing 70 hectares of hops and blackcurrants.

I am chairman of the New Zealand Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust and a trustee of the Massey Lincoln Agricultural Industry Trust. Other governance roles I hold include a director of the New Zealand Boysenberry Council, Nelson Seasonal Employers Inc, Cawthron Institute and chair of Berryfruit Export NZ.

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Commentary

Why am I here?

I want to make a difference in an industry about which I care a great deal. HortNZ and the various sectors face many challenges. These include trying to get some sensible processes in place around the Resource Management Act. It is too hard, complex and expensive for HortNZ to deal with 72 local authorities administering the RMA in different ways.

Over one third of Hort NZ’s budget is currently spent in this area and growing.

While some big projects could go straight to the Environmental Protection Authority for a decision, there needs to be a more cost-effective way to deal with issues on a day-to-day basis.

Biosecurity is also an important issue for HortNZ. Several sectors have felt the effects when it goes horribly wrong.

We cannot slip up again.

Vol 68 No 7

I want to make a difference in an industry about which I care a great deal. HortNZ and the various sectors face many challenges.

We need to continue the push for mandatory country of origin labelling. New Zealand is among the last western countries not to have it and consumers deserve to know where their produce comes from in order to make an informed choice. These are some of the priorities on my list right now.

Smaller changes will be made to other ways we do things including this column in The Orchardist and NZGrower magazines. I think it’s important growers hear from leaders in all of our 22 product groups and will be invited and encouraged, to have a say on these pages. What’s happening in your group? What are the issues you care most about? We are one industry and it’s crucial we understand one another. Working together in a more effective way will help all of us.

VegFed History Launched VegFed president Brian Gargiulo launched the history of VegFed and the nation’s vegetable industry last month.

The book is called Growing Together, and at 170 pages it features great photos and stories of the old and not so old people who made the New Zealand vegetable industry what it is today. The book is for sale through the HortNZ office, for $45. Call 0508 467 869 to order a copy or email info@hortnz.co.nz.

An finally, I wish to thank Andrew Fenton for his leadership for the first eight years of Hort NZ. He remains on the board and will help to ensure a smooth transition.

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the value of experience Vol 68 No 7

Commentary

3

Your levy at work HortNZ leads industry wide issues for industry good Conference As is reported in this magazine, Horticulture New Zealand held its annual conference in Wellington on July 30 to 31. Just over 430 delegates attended, which was down on previous years, but expected because of its distance from major growing regions.

We did get a very healthy turnout of South Island growers, which was what we’d hoped for by having the event in Wellington. There are no appropriate venues for a conference of our size in the South Island at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who attended and to the speakers who gave up their time to support our event. Also a very big thank you must go to our sponsors and trade exhibitors; we couldn’t do it without you. A special thank you to Rabobank, our principal sponsor, who have been part of the conference team for quite a few years now and to AGMARDT who supported the keynote speaker, Professor David Hughes.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Unusually one of the most challenging aspects of the HortNZ conference for the HortNZ staff this year was the running of the annual general meeting on Tuesday afternoon, July 30.

Two of the six motions put to the meeting were seeking to make considerable changes to the way HortNZ operates. HortNZ believed it was important we took these motions seriously and we made sure we

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Your levy at work

conducted the voting in an appropriate and fair manner. The motions, with explanatory notes, are available for you to read on the HortNZ website www. hortnz.co.nz. Both the motions failed.

Governance HortNZ has a new president. Former president Andrew Fenton stepped down from that role at the annual general meeting on Tuesday, July 30.

At a board meeting directly after the AGM, Julian Raine was elected to the position of president. Julian is a Nelson-based fruit and berry grower who was elected to the HortNZ board in 2011.

New HortNZ director Mike Arnold spent a day with HortNZ staff in Wellington last month to get an opportunity to put some faces to names and get a brief over view of how the organisation works day-today. Mike went away with plenty of reading material for homework before his first board meeting, which followed the HortNZ annual general meeting on Tuesday July 30. Mike is a vegetable grower with LeaderBrand South Island.

Tasman District

Resource Management Horizons: As if the week of the HortNZ conference wasn’t busy enough, HortNZ was required to spend most of the same week in the High Court in Wellington for our appeal against the Environment Court’s decision on the

Horizon’s Regional Council’s One Plan.

We have taken this action along with Federated Farmers.

The Environment Court’s decisions on the One Plan do not adequately consider the implications for horticulture, in particular for vegetable growing. And don’t go thinking that this only applies to the Horizons region. Our resource management and environment manager Chris Keenan says regulation of land use affects is a given across New Zealand and we cannot afford for the Horizons approach to be adopted in other parts of the country.

We felt we got a good hearing from the High Court and we now have to wait for the court’s decision.

Hawke’s Bay: HortNZ has appealed decisions on Change 5 to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Policy Statement that establishes an overarching framework for considering integrated water management, including storage proposals. While the council decisions have made some positive changes we are looking for better recognition of food production values in the Hawkes Bay. Tukituki catchment and Ruataniwha Dam: The Plan Change for Tukituki and the resource consent for the Ruataniwha Dam have been ‘called in’ by the Government to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). HortNZ worked with a number of other groups on submissions to the EPA, which went to the EPA on August 2.

Nelson: HortNZ has made a submission on the Plan Change to provide for the Waimea Water Vol 68 No 7

Management and Augmentation (Lee Dam). HortNZ’s Chris Keenan and Lynette Wharfe met with growers to discuss the proposal and approach to take in the submission. There will be further opportunity to be involved with further submissions and hearings on the proposed changes.

Far North District: HortNZ has made a submission on the Proposed Far North District Plan Rural Provisions. While some changes were made as a result of earlier comments there is still a focus on amenity issues rather than providing for a working productive environment.

Changes have been sought to better reflect a rural working environment.

Biosecurity Peter Silcock spoke at the NZ Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture Science forum on Biosecurity in Auckland last month and used the opportunity to clearly explain the negative impact biosecurity incursions have on our sustainability, productivity and market access.

Peter said while biosecurity is a major threat to horticulture’s future growth, all countries face biosecurity threats and New Zealand’s isolation gives us a unique opportunity to manage this critical issue better

than our competitors. “But there needs to be a stronger partnership between industry, government and science to do that,” he said.

Have you liked the CoOL Facebook page and joined the group ‘I Want A CoOL New Zealand’? Have you sent a message to Nikki Kaye, the Minister of Food Safety, via the CoOLNZ website: www.cool.org.nz? About 250 people already have. We need more. Send your message now. HortNZ supports the need for mandatory country of origin labelling on all food sold in New Zealand.

Advocacy HortNZ chief executive Peter Silcock and food safety manager Matt Dolan have attended several meetings convened by the Ministry for Primary Industries to discuss the establishment of a stakeholders’ working group to work with the Ministry on the practical aspects of implementing the Food Bill in the produce industry.

While HortNZ and other groups have been successful in getting explicit provisions included in the Bill to recognise industry programmes such as NZ GAP and GLOBAL GAP, the details of how this will be done still need to be worked through.

The working group will include producers, wholesalers, retailers and other industry stakeholders.

Vol 68 No 7

A biosecurity beagle goes through its paces at the HortNZ conference last month.

Your levy at work

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New board member up and lobbying

When meeting Prime Minister John Key at HortNZ’s conference last month, Mike expressed growers’ concerns about the huge tariffs placed on New Zealand buttercup squash in Korea, and looming competition from Mexico.

Mike told NZGrower that he told Mr Key that while New Zealand growers pay a 27 percent tariff, it is highly likely that once Mexico begins to import to Korea, possibly within the next three years, it will be at zero tariff.

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Conference 2013

“New Zealand sent 23,341 tonnes of buttercup squash to Korea and our growers paid around $5.8 million in tariffs. Our competition will certainly come from Mexico.”

Mike said he put the case to Mr Key for the need for lower tariffs if New Zealand was to have any hope of competing with Mexico. Mike said Mr Key said he was aware of the situation and it was the focus of meetings and discussions between the two countries.

HortNZ board member Mike Arnold (left) greets Prime Minister John Key at the HortNZ conference in Wellington. HortNZ’s immediatepast president Andrew Fenton and grower Howe Young look on. Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy stands behind Mr Young.

Photo Ivor Earp-Jones.

Mike was elected to the HortNZ board in July this year and is general manager for Leaderbrand South Island Ltd.. He said he was pleased Mr Key took the time to spend a few minutes talking to conference delegates “and the fact he came to conference”.

“I told him I was a fan of his.”

Vol 68 No 7

FMG0339

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FMG

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23/04/13 1:03 PM

“Smart farmers will have a future” Outgoing HortNZ president Andrew Fenton’s key message to growers at the organisation’s conference last month was simple: “Say no to low prices.”

One of the beagle boys lapped up all the attention from HortNZ immediatepast president Andrew Fenton at the organisation's conference in Wellington last month. MInistry for Primary Industries staff brought the dogs to conference to show off their biosecurity skills.

Photo Ivor Earp-Jones.

Conference photos by Ivor Earp-Jones

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new

He told the 430 plus delegates they needed to be far more assertive and insistent in their market dealings to achieve the results they deserved.

“Hell, we have earned them”.

“Don’t leave money on the table for someone else to take.”

He said growers, at the end of the money chain, tended to be price takers.

Growers’ biggest challenge was to make sure prices at the farm gate were profitable and sustainable.

“This is vital. Growers and New Zealand rely on healthy food and export returns.”

Andrew said if growers were not making money, there would be no industry.

If growers could not keep the price above the cost of production they will go out of business. “The only person you punch when you accept a low price is yourself.”

“Smart farmers will feed our future.

Smart farmers will have a future.”

needed help from the government through support for the RSE scheme and a “user-friendly” resource management process.

He referred to the High Court legal battle over land issues in Horizons Region playing out in Wellington at the same time as the conference, and warned delegates that this “enormous iceberg” was coming to get them, even if they were not in that region.

He attacked the “misunderstandings” and “misguided decision making” that were compromising the commercial viability of growers and warned that through leveraging regional strategies when one region gets something through, other regions will copy it.

Resource management issues cost HortNZ 30 percent of its budget, or $700,000 a year and it was increasing.

“It has become our number one activity and the highest expense portfolio and it is growing every day.

There is no room for complacency.”

“We have to combine together and be united, and it’s a bit like a battle cry, quite frankly. We have to stick together to defend our rights.

We shouldn’t need to be paying all this money to defend our rights.”

Mr Fenton said HortNZ would be continuing to push for mandatory Country of Origin Labelling, and gave the Ministry for Primary Industries the message that growers will be expecting it to do everything it can to minimise biosecurity risks.

“Never relax on the first line of defence or our country will pay dearly. And growers will pay the most.”

In his final message he urged New Zealanders to buy New Zealand grown produce. “Celebrate the wonderful taste of New Zealand fruit and vegetables.” It was the safest and the best tasting produce in the world, he said.

Growers’ biggest challenge was to make sure prices at the farm gate were profitable and sustainable.

Horticulture New Zealand Conference 2013

thinking

“This is vital. Growers and New Zealand rely on healthy food and export returns.”

Mr Fenton told the conference that in order to meet the industry goal of $10 billion by 2020, horticulture

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Produce at front line of retail battle

By Lesley Wilson

“Produce is the new frontline in the grocery retail battle”. That was the opening statement from Rabobank’s senior analyst Marc Soccio at the Horticulture New Zealand conference in July.

While this may seem great news to producers Mr Soccio went on to explain that a lot of work needs to be done by producers to identify the various levels of the market. Find out who is buying what, why and where.

Supermarkets have done their homework and identified that fresh produce is driving consumer traffic, spend and loyalty, but it is not that simple.

“Consumer interest in fresh produce is rising,” said Mr Soccio. “The supermarkets are hitting on a trend. Five years ago there were no food TV programmes in Australia, in 2012 My Kitchen Rules was in the top five and there were five different programmes in the top 50; that equates to 2.5million viewers.”

An interesting trend to capture the consumer dollar has been the segmentation of the market overseas. Consumers have showed increased interest in both the top end speciality shops and the decreased price outlets such as Walmart.

“These guys, the top and bottom, are out performing

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the middle of said Mr Soccio.

the

road

mainstream

chainstores,”

Identifying who is and isn’t eating your produce, and why, is imperative to capturing success in new food market trends.

Surveys have found that the 18 to 45 year old demographic are not eating enough vegetables due to their busy and time-poor lifestyles. One such product line was Australian bananas.

“A survey showed that the young, couples and independent singles were time poor and had a low tendency to buy bananas.”

Horticulture Australia Limited and the Australian Banana Growers Association worked with a marketing company to introduce bananas to the snack food market.

The campaign got the younger generation purchasing more bananas (+11 percent in shopper penetration) and got them purchasing more frequently.

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thinking

“The industry thought that the competition was from other carbohydrates like rice and pasta,” said Mr Soccio. “However research showed that it was our changing diet that was the competition and potatoes were competing against other food categories like salad; people were removing potatoes from their diet.”

Mr Soccio added that we need to get smart about who we are competing against. Potatoes had the added dilemma of respected institutes warning people off their product.

Harvard School of Public Health Bag the potatoes. Choose other vegetables that are packed with more nutrients and more slowly digested carbs. Read the “Carbohydrates” section of The Nutrition Source to learn how to add good carbs to your diet. Or try one of these delicious whole grains recipes as an alternative to potatoes.

Online a new threat to supermarkets Amazon has recently announced it will enter the fresh produce market. It has been selling dry and packaged produce and is now trialling the online fresh sector in Los Angeles and Seattle.

“This may be a new threat to the supermarket oligopolies,” said Mr Soccio. “We need to drive value at the farm gate. There is a revolution on how we understand the market; we need to segment it.”

“Producers need to see who’s eating what and why and why not. They need to identify their competition and work through the challenges of the large supermarket oligopolies; and remember that online shopping is taking off like a train.” People are being driven by convenience.

On top of this people are looking for more convenient ways to achieve their nutrition.

“Dietary supplements have doubled over the past 10 years and there is a significant increase in marketing of products”’ said Mr Soccio. “They are targeting the produce sector, it is easier to take a pill to get your nutritional needs; just look at fish oil marketing.”

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Horticulture New Zealand Conference 2013

While the competition for bananas was identified as the snack food market and not other fruit and vegetables, the story is slightly different for Australian potatoes.

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Including horticulture in New Zealand’s future

By Lesley Wilson

Politicians from the National Party, Labour and Greens spoke at the HortNZ conference on Including Horticulture in New Zealand’s Future. The following is a brief overview on where the various parties currently stand.

All parties noted that horticulture was an important industry to New Zealand and applauded the industry’s vision to grow.

National Party Nathan Guy Minister for Primary Industries On top of last month’s announcement of the x-ray image transfer trial with Melbourne Airport – a process where the x-ray image of passengers’ luggage is sent from Melbourne to Auckland to be assessed before the passengers arrive - the Minister announced that 11 new x-ray machines will be bought to replace existing machines at Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown airports.

“The new x-ray images will be of a better quality than we currently have,” said Mr Guy. “This will make quarantine inspectors’ jobs easier and more efficient.”

Mr Guy noted that since the global financial crisis trade and tourism has increased.

“MPI are in the process, as trade increases again, of bolstering their staff,” added Mr Guy. So far 55 quarantine inspectors have been recruited and MPI is recruiting another 30. Mr Guy also noted that he was pleased with the progress being made on the Government Indsutry Agreement on Biosecurity Readiness and Response (GIA).

Mr Guy once again noted that the Government has a goal to double the value of the primary sector exports by 2020 with free trade deals playing a big part.

Since signing the FTA with China in 2008 our exports to China have tripled and that in April 2013, China overtook Australia to become our largest export market.

The Government is focusing of FTAs with India, Russia and Colombia; they are also working hard on Trans Pacific Partnerships with USA and Japan. Mr Guy is certain that these agreements will go a long way to helping achieve the 2020 goal.

Much of Mr Guy’s speech was similar to the one given at the Biosecurity Conference: Have we gone soft at the borders? held in July. This is covered in this issue of this magazine.

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thinking

Labour Party Damien O’Connor Spokesperson for Primary Industries Mr O’Connor identified that the majority of farmers and growers do not receive the premiums that consumers believe they do and pointed the finger at supermarkets, banks and big business.

He also recommended, for reading, the 3rd KPMG Agribusiness Agenda that identified biosecurity as the number one concern for agribusiness leaders in New Zealand.

Mr O’Connor report noted:

found

it

alarming

that

the

“There is a clear view that the industry needs to take greater ownership of the biosecurity system to ensure relevant risks are identified and managed appropriately.”

“It reflects what has happened to our biosecurity system over the last four years,” said Mr O’Connor. “Ongoing cuts in front-line biosecurity inspections, a determination to relax import standards and a creation of a super-Ministry that has seen hundreds of experienced and knowledgeable staff out of a job has meant that in reality, farmers and growers are very exposed to biosecurity failure.”

Labour is critical of the Government’s keenness to allow imports of pork and honey that “could potentially introduce disease and viruses fatal to our domestic industry.” Mr O’Connor also stated that the kiwifruit industry is “plagued by Psa because of the failure of the government system to protect New Zealand from its introduction.”

Labour supports Country of Origin Labelling and the RSE scheme. However, with the RSE scheme came the proviso that it is committed first and foremost to employment for every New Zealander who wants to work.

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Russell Norman’s speech was presented by Steffan Browning.

The Greens acknowledged that the horticultural industry is a crucial part of New Zealand’s economy “as well as its culture and society, not to mention its stomach.”

Prophetically, given the recent Fonterra botulism scare, Mr Browning noted that the horticulture industry in New Zealand lives and dies by its international reputation as producers of safe and clean food.

“As customers around the world increase their demand for clean, green and safer food, New Zealand has the opportunity to step in and provide real food to them. Food with proud provenance.

Part of that provenance is that we have modern methods of production and high standards for food safety.”

Mr Browning then continued on to note that producers need to look after the environment to maintain that image.

“The National Government thinks that we can keep our clean, safe marketing advantage while still pushing industrial dairy intensification and dangerous mining – they hope our customers won’t notice the disjunction between marketing and reality. But they will.”

Mr Browning stated that he agreed with Southern Cross’ Ian Macpherson who said “we can grow food to sustain about 25 million people – that’s a tiny part of Asia – aren’t we spreading ourselves too thinly even now? Focus on high quality, premium prices and not volume.”

The Green Party strongly support Country of Origin Labeling, will be focusing on bee health and believes that the current Government is “playing fast and loose with our biosecurity standards.”

Horticulture New Zealand Conference 2013

Green Party of Aoteoroa New Zealand

“This National Government…have been so locked in to defending its free trade position, that it can’t see the risks it is taking. Their rush to open up borders to increase the market for our commodity products is short-sighted if it destroys the very environment that we rely on to produce those goods.”

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Drugs – sobering facts for employers

By Lesley Wilson

“Drug users see employers as cash cows and want to rip you off; they will do as little as they can for money” This hard-hitting statement from Methcon’s Dale Kirk, caught the attention of the many employers in the Vegetable New Zealand’s Illegal Drugs in the Work Place session at its annual meeting in Wellington last month.

Mr Kirk also hit the audience with some sobering statistics.

He labeled it a gateway drug noting that regular cannabis users are 60 times more likely to try harder drugs.

“Eleven percent of the entire work force is using drugs (not including alcohol). Drug users are 3.6 times more likely to be injured, are one-third less productive, two to three times more absent, and 20 percent of drug users are violent as opposed to only 2 percent in the non-drug using community.”

The issue for cannabis users (and employers) is how long the drug stays in the system. If used Friday night it will give impairment level readings if tested for on Monday morning.

Mr Kirk noted that forestry cannot get enough people to work as many fail the drugs test.

Mr Kirk highlighted that drugs in the workplace is an issue and testing is around testing for impairment not actual drug use. However the glitch in the system is that while methamphetamine should be out of the system in two days, cannabis, which is fat soluble, can stay in the system for over five weeks giving a positive test weeks from last use.

Cannabis in 2013 is not the same as in the 1960s. It used to have one to two percent potency, now it is around six to13 percent with some up to 33 percent.

Mr Kirk gave an overview of many of the common drugs found in New Zealand but focused on two main substances marijuana, part of the depressant family of drugs, and methamphetamine, part of the stimulant family.

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Mr Kirk continued: “Cannabis does not just become a habit, it becomes a lifestyle with some users using up to three times a day.”

While there had been a few suppressed laughs within the audience during the marijuana talk the room sobered up quickly when the talk moved onto methamphetamine or as it can also be called P, Pure, Speed, GoFast, A Feed, Crank, Burns, Fires, ICE Crystal, Meth, That/That.

Once again statistics shocked the audience.

“Meth is the biggest drug problem in the world today.

The top three countries in the world for use are Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.”

“Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug. New Zealanders smoke more cannabis that Jamaicans, 14 percent of New Zealanders use it regularly and 80 percent of people under 25 have tried it.”

“It is a highly addictive drug and is part of the stimulant family. It is the only drug you can manufacture yourself, it is odourless, and is easily dissolved in a bottle of water for ‘top ups’ during the day.”

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“Meth is sold in small plastic bags as ‘points’ which are onetenth of a gram and these cost around $100. One gram costs $1000 and an ounce costs $15,000. It costs $500 in raw materials to make an ounce of meth and when this ounce is split into points it is worth $30,000.”

Signs of meth use Unfortunately there is no one sign of meth use and because it is colourless and odourless it is difficult to spot but a combination of changes in behaviour, physical appearance and the ownership of paraphernalia are all cues.

Dale Kirk: Meth is the biggest drug problem in the world today.

New Zealand is one of the top three countries for use.

Early behaviour changes can include hyperactivity, mood swings, increased alertness, which over time changes to nervousness, irritability and paranoia.

Protecting your employees and your business from the effects of drugs can come in the form of a good drugs and alcohol policy.

Physical changes can occur quickly, sometimes within three months; users can show signs of weight loss and sores from ‘bugging’ . Bugging is where the user scratches and picks the skin to stop itching, or the feeling of bugs and mites under the skin. The drug culture has its own lexicon and these sores can also be known as speed bump or crank bugs.

“Set the bar high,” says Mr Kirk. “And test everyone in the company. Meth has invaded all levels of New Zealand society and is a highly addictive drug. Sixty-two percent of meth users are still employed.”

Then there are the burnt thumbs from holding down a lighter when smoking the drug and the rotting, discoloured teeth.

The drugs paraphernalia include lightbulbs, small plastic bags and glass pipes.

“Those little plastic bags usually have designs on them,” said Mr Kirk. “They aren’t useful for anything else; you certainly can’t pack your lunch in them.”

What employers can do It goes without saying that employers value their employees and mostly, until drugs take hold, the feeling is mutual.

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Above: Meth is sold in small plastic bags like these.

Mr Kirk notes that in the early stages of use the employee can be seen in a positive light by the employer. “Suddenly the employee’s output is incredibly high and they work long hours.”

Of course initially the employer is thrilled however it can soon turn bad.

“Forty-three percent of users earn money from illegal activities to subsidise their drug habit, with the average illegal earnings being around $24,000 per annum,” said Mr Kirk “Have a good drug policy statement, have a urine test policy and procedure, have everyone tested and have impairment test policies and procedures.”

For more information on drug and alcohol policies go to www.dol.govt.nz/infozone/businessessentials/safety/ hazards/sample-policy-drugs-alcohol.asp

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Many of us know that meth users need more and more over time as their neuro-receptors degenerate due to the drug.

The need for the drug drives crime and manufacturing. In economic terms there are some simple equations.

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Young Grower of the Year finalists, from left: Ben James. Jonathan Sutton, Chris Anstis and Dave Winter.

Ben, a Hawke’s Bay fruit grower, went on to win the competition.

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The Michael Fowler centre turned green in honour of the occasion.

Keynote speaker David Hughes.

A beagle shows off its biosecurity skills.

Photographer Ivor Ear-jones caught the action, the people and the beagles at HortNZ’s annual conference in Wellington last month.

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Outstanding pioneers win horticulture’s top honour

By Lesley Wilson

Joe and Fay Gock philanthropists, innovators and truly humble people, have won the Bledisloe Cup for 2013.

They received the trophy from Prime Minister John Key at HortNZ’s conference in Wellington last month.

What Joe and Fay have done for the New Zealand vegetable industry is astounding and it is the selfless way that they have lived their lives that is inspirational to many.

“Most of all,” said Fay, “Remember why you are growing. Have it in your heart to do it for your people, not for your pocket.”

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The Gocks are featured in the recently released Sons of the Soil: Chinese Market Gardeners in New Zealand. The feature tells of Joe’s immigration from China in 1940 on a refugee permit, his early days in Clive, Hawke’s Bay and how as a family they grew vegetables for the war effort.

The Gock family moved to Mangere in 1951 and in 1956 Joe married Fay who had also immigrated from China on a refugee permit but had been living in Auckland.

Outstanding highlights of their careers include in the 1960s giving their disease free strain of kumara Owairaka Red to the Department of Agriculture to help save the Northland kumara industry which had brown scurvy and black rot disease in their crops.

The couple developed innovative kumara storage procedures that reduced crop loss from as much as 50 percent to less than one percent.

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A moment of celebration for Joe and Fay Gock.

Opposite page: Prime Minister John Key presented Joe and Fay Gock with the industry's premier award, the Bledisloe Cup. Photo Ivor Earp-Jones.

The Gocks developed the first seedless watermelon and to differentiate them from others they placed stickers on the fruit, the first to do so though it is a common place occurrence now.

The Gocks are also among a handful of commerciallysuccessful rhubarb growers, which they have exported to England and Japan. They also led the industry in the use of carrot washing equipment in the 1970s.

Then there is the broccoli packaging innovation, using polystyrene boxes filled with ice to maintain quality.

The Gocks still grow dwarf beans, cos lettuce, capsicums, cauliflowers, rhubarb and kumara.

At their acceptance speech Joe noted “I came here in 1940 as a refugee and was supposed to leave when the war was over. I am 85 years old and still here.”

Joe’s speech brought laughter when he said smiling “New Zealand is so good and kind, they decided not to kick us out.”

The overarching philosophy of the Gocks is what drives them. “Growing is important,” said Joe. “It is a service to mankind.”

Joe noted that he loves growing and the outdoor life, “I still feel young at 85.”

After the presentation Fay offered some words of wisdom for the younger generations. “Don’t be disheartened if things go wrong after all the hard work. It gives you strength and it makes your brain think.”

“Most of all,” said Fay, “Remember why you are growing.

Have it in your heart to do it for your people, not for your pocket.”

HortNZ president Julian Raine thanked the Gocks for decades of selfless and hugely valuable to service to the industry.

He said the couple gave their time and stock, generously provided advice, assistance and mentoring to other growers over many years, as well as providing work and support for several generations of local families, and donated to schools and the underprivileged of Manukau City of a number of years.

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Potatoes unveils pathway for success Potatoes New Zealand chief executive Champak Mehta has outlined a vision for repositioning the New Zealand potato industry and building a platform for future success.

Mr Mehta told industry stakeholders at the Potatoes New Zealand Inc conference that the industry needed to be repositioned in order to grow and meet its goals.

Together with consultant, Dr James Morrison, Mr Mehta set out the major challenges facing the industry, and unveiled the draft strategy to achieve significant growth and increased profitability.

Mr Mehta said that eight key themes for achieving this had been identified and will be further developed through full consultation and in close collaboration with industry members.

The first draft has been developed through the series of workshops run for industry stakeholders, followed by hard analysis on the core themes raised at those events.

“Potatoes New Zealand Inc. wants to significantly increase value from both exports as well as the domestic market within the next 10 years, and to do that we have to develop a road map,” said Mr Mehta.

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“We have taken all the information on the opportunities and threats faced by the industry and used hard analysis to identify how we might better orientate ourselves as an industry to capitalise on what the next 10, 20 or 30 years will throw at us.”

The strategy sets out targets, to increase profit from productivity by $150 per ha per annum over 10 years, double the value of fresh and processed based exports by 2025 and to enhance the value of the domestic market by 50 per cent by 2025.

Priorities are creating a competitive platform for growth, focusing on quality produce and aligning value chains and on strong market execution – developing new markets and protecting and enhancing existing ones. These priorities apply equally to the fresh and process value chains both domestically and for export markets.

The key theme at the heart of the draft strategy is to improve grower productivity by creating a platform for growth and improving the competitive position of the New Zealand industry.

Another key aspect includes finding the best way to manage waste streams so that market value is not compromised – with animal feeds raised as a strong option.

Mr Mehta told the meeting that the New Zealand potato industry faced very significant challenges.

Currently the industry is small on the international stage and is not growing, the New Zealand potato market (domestic demand) is relatively static and industry growth has been driven out of export process product.

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Strategy consultant Dr James Morrison presents the draft strategy to Potatoes NZ conference delgates.

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Internationally, fries and process products are highly commoditised and competitive – but while the world fries industry has continued to grow, New Zealand’s share of it has declined.

Mr Mehta said that to avoid the New Zealand industry being “crushed in a head-to-head challenge with emerging giants” it was essential to have a cohesive industry, with collaboration and innovation driving sustainable growth and profit.

“The proposed mission for the industry is to improve productivity and develop premium export markets for New Zealand potatoes and potato based products in Asia and the South Pacific,” he said.

“We have taken all the information on the opportunities and threats faced by the industry and used hard analysis to identify how we might better orientate ourselves as an industry to capitalise on what the next 10, 20 or 30 years will throw at us.”

“Given that the New Zealand domestic market and consumption is constrained, the strategy must be export focused, with a premium product, and market focused with exports adapted to fulfil market needs.”

Added value is a strong aspect of the strategy. Dr Morrison told the meeting that China is significantly ramping up its growing, regionalising production and manufacturing highly sophisticated agricultural machinery.

It was estimated China could potentially produce an extra 52 million metric tonnes of potatoes annually, compared to New Zealand’s total annual production of 500,000 metric tonnes.

PORTABLE CROP PROTECTION

However, Mr Mehta said that opportunity lay in exporting a higher quality product.

“We are not going to feed China but we can feed those customers in selected Asian markets that want our niche, high quality products and are prepared to pay for them.”

Dr Morrison said that, to achieve these aims, particularly the top priority of improving growers’ profitability, all industry stakeholders would need to be on top of their game, working together collaboratively and cohesively towards shared goals.

Plant breeding programmes would need to be coordinated towards specific objectives and one area for consideration would be a custom built seed storage facility with the potential to store 25 per cent of the industry product.

“These targets can only be achieved if your common goal is to build the export market,” he said. “If you want to build the export market and have a competitive export industry then working collaboratively is the way to do it.”

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Consistent crop conditions at hand any time, any season.

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Versatile Movable Modular Economical For more details: Ernst Frei Phone 03 322 4960 Mobile 029 322 4960 info@flexitunnel.co.nz Visit www.flexitunnel.co.nz to view our video

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The “white hot vegetable” The high potassium content of potatoes – making them a “white hot vegetable” is a key marketing advantage, leading American expert Dr Maureen Storey told the Potatoes New Zealand conference.

Potassium plays a major role in reducing the risk of heart disease and strokes, some of the biggest killers of New Zealanders. Among other health benefits, it also helps to combat high blood pressure and mitigate the impact of sodium on health.

Dr Storey, president and CEO of the Alliance for Potato Research and Education (APRE) said that, gram-forgram, potatoes are the best source of potassium of any fruit or vegetable – yet consumers are not widely aware of this.

She has also been surprised to find that many health professionals, including dieticians, are unaware

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of the full of potatoes.

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APRE is strongly science based, with its advisory board including scientists and economic advisors. It invests strategically in research and development. Its main goal is to educate influencers of consumers, such as health professionals and the bodies which set federal policy around major food programmes.

Tackling misconceptions about potatoes in these areas are among the organisation’s major challenges.

Currently this includes providing facts and supporting research that

other organisations may use to inform policymakers, such as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) not including fresh potatoes in the list of foods included in the major Women, Infants and Children (WiC) programme, which provides additional benefits to buy certain types of foods.

USDA also proposed to limit the amount of “starchy’ vegetables, including potatoes, peas and corn, allowed in its multi-billion dollar school meals programme to just one cup per week.

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Potatoes NZ conference delegates listen to a presentation.

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said Dr Storey. “We build the science foundation for that through investment in research.”

APRE has developed a multi-year potato nutrition research programme with four main thrusts including consumption, health and wellbeing, nutritional qualities, and satiety.

“We are filling the gaps in available literature and contributing new science-based evidence about potatoes in all forms, boiled, mashed and fried,” said Dr Storey.

A key link between Dr Storey’s presentation and that of fellow conference speaker Robbie Davis, chief executive of Potatoes South Australia was the overall decline in consumption of fruit and vegetables, including potatoes.

Dr Storey said that potato consumption in the US had decreased by 15 per cent in the last decade – more so than that of dark leafed vegetables – and with all segments of the market, including crisps (potato chips).

South Australia is the country’s biggest potato-producing state and the organisation was established in 2012 to represent the interests of potato industry stakeholders, undertake research and development, commission marketing and consumer education programmes and provide policy advice to the Australian Government on potato industry issues.

Prior to it being formed, there had been no potato market–led promotional campaign in South Australia or nationally for at least 25 years.

As well as the lack of cohesion across sectors and between stakeholders and no national dedicated industry association, Ms Davis outlined many other challenges facing the Australian potato industry.

These include lack of control of supermarket chains to remove anticompetitive practices, biosecurity issues, food producers being undervalued and inequity in water allocation. However, the ‘whole of value chain’ approach allows for the building of relationships and partnerships with the retailers and all stakeholders to better address these issues, particularly consumer needs.

She said there is also inadequate extension of R&D outcomes to growers and the wider industry and lack of understanding of the investment benefits of the National Potato Levy.

“Many growers do not understand why they pay the National Potato Levy,” said Ms Davis. “Growers and processors pay 50c per tonne. >

In her speech, Ms Davis outlined how the greatest threat was to the fresh sector – and that the Australian and New Zealand industries could, potentially, work together on initiatives to lift demand, combat potato diseases and boost exports.

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“We are filling the gaps in available literature and contributing new science-based evidence about potatoes in all forms, boiled, mashed and fried,” said Dr Storey.

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Unlike New Zealand, Australia does not have a single dedicated body representing the potato industry – instead there are a number of representative organisations working individually across the country.

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That is matched by the government, resulting in $2 per tonne which goes into the pot for R&D. “Also, potato breeding projects are no longer a priority for R&D. We are trying to connect retailers, consumers, processors and growers to make sure the right R&D gets done, because it is so important for our competitiveness.

Consumer related issues also include a lack of consumer awareness and education around potatoes, no national potato industry promotional levy, little documented consumer research, a lack of differentiation between varieties for consumers, and an underdeveloped export market.

“We know that we need to produce disease-resistant or higher yielding varieties and we need to lobby very hard to make those programmes happen.”

Consumer related issues also include a lack of consumer awareness and education around potatoes, no national potato industry promotional levy, little documented consumer research, a lack of differentiation between varieties for consumers, and an underdeveloped export market.

Profit margins are also declining, due to falling prices and rising input costs, with Australian processing costs amongst the highest in the world.

Ms Davis said that potentially, New Zealand and Australia could collaborate on R&D initiatives with the aim of growing exports.

“We have not looked at exports as New Zealand has - so congratulations for an amazing job. We are currently exporting seed into Indonesia and Thailand, and also product for

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crisping into Indonesia, with a small fresh market in the Middle East but we want to try to grow this. We have also started research looking at generic marketing of other fresh produce and competing carbohydrates across the whole country. This is the first step in a national promotional campaign for fresh potatoes; South Australia is the market leader in this sector.”

Skills shortages are also a growing problem with insufficient numbers of bright students opting to study agriculture or horticulture.

Addressing the issue of the import of fresh New Zealand potatoes to Australia, Ms Davis said that the Australian industry was acutely aware of the impact of zebra chip on growers in the US and New Zealand and was eager to collaborate to find ways to manage and eradicate the disease.

Potatoes South Australia is also looking at workforce issues across the value chain to produce a workforce development plan that will create training programmes to deliver appropriate training across the sector.

“If we get it right it will have an enormous impact on the South Australian and national workforce and might have international implications,” she said.

“We need to work with like-minded organisations around the state, around the country and internationally. These collaborative partnerships are the only way to move ahead.

“We need to focus on growing demand, competitiveness, sustainability and profitability for all stakeholders in the potato industry and all the people in the value chain.

I hope this is the beginning of a very long and profitable association with you.”

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The winner is…

Grower Technology was voted the Best Stand at the conference.

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Lefroy Valley held “guess the number of seeds competition” at the recent Hort NZ Conference.

The prize was a Mystery Weekend for two to the value of $1000 Lefroy Valley is proud to support the Vegetable growing industry and the winner of this competition: Vegetables New Zealand chairman Keith Vallabh.

We hope Keith will enjoy using this voucher. We are not sure if this will involve fishing. Keith won with a guess of 225,000 seeds. The actual number was 227,389.

Lefroy Valley look forward to continuing to support the industry.

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Thank you

Horticulture New Zealand thanks the following sponsors for their support of the 2013 conference Principa sponsor l

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Silver sponso r

Bronze sponso r

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New Potatoes New Zealand Inc board members elected Potatoes New Zealand Inc (PNZ Inc) has a new board as it moves to reposition the sector to achieve ambitious growth targets.

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Chairman: Stuart Wright (Grower member director)

Stuart has served as chair of the interim board for the past year and has extensive governance experience including 14 years on the board of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), nine as chairman.

He is also a director of Ravensdown Fertiliser Company and completed a Nuffield Scholarship in 1996. He farms 450ha at Sheffield west of Christchurch, growing arable crops, finishing lambs and producing seed potatoes.

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Kevin Balle (Grower member director)

Kevin’s grassroots involvement in the vegetable industry spans over 45 years. He rejoined the Board of Potatoes New Zealand as a director in 2010.

He has represented growers at a local and national industry organisation level for 35 years and is a shareholder and director of the Balle Group farming business, comprising 2,500 hectares of vegetable production plus associated dairy and beef production units.

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Bharat’s family has been in the cropping industry for over 50 years. His extensive industry experience includes being an executive member of the Pukekohe Vegetable Growers’ Association for many years, and the potato sector of Vegfed.

He was vice chairman of Potatoes NZ from 2004 to 2009, and a director of Potatoes NZ, affiliated to Horticulture NZ from 2008-2013 including chairing the Export Marketing Development Group.

Jon Davison (Independent Director, appointed for one year)

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Jon is General Manager - Potato Products at Talley’s Group Ltd. He has an extensive management, sales and export background and vast experience managing growth focused food manufacturing facilities including plant expansions and business development into new markets.

Tony Hendrikse (Trade member director) Tony has over 30-years’ experience in the horticultural industry including the seed potato industry since 1998. He is general manager and one of the owners of Eurogrow Potatoes, a seed potato company focused primarily on proprietary varieties. Tony also has business interests in seed potatoes in Australia and via this to Thailand.

John Jackson (Trade member director)

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John Jackson has been involved in the potato industry for more than 25 years and currently works for McCain Foods (NZ) Ltd, with experience in crop procurement, strategic planning and operations.

John began his career over 30 years ago for J Wattie Canneries in Timaru with their vegetable processing operation and was involved from the inception of McCain Foods, the country’s first manufacturing operation.

Michael Moleta (Grower member director) Michael is a third generation potato grower and a director of the family company which farms a mixed arable farm growing about 20ha of potatoes for processing and fresh market supply.

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He has an Agribusiness degree from Massey University, and leadership experience in community groups through sports clubs, young farmers club and school board of trustees.

David Redmond (Grower member director) David is a third generation potato grower and has been growing and supplying potatoes for 25 years. He grows about 350 ha of potatoes annually as well as mixed crop and also farms Angus cattle.

He began his career by starting and developing a potato harvesting business. This led to a potato growing business, DC and LJ Redmond, and directorship of Ridges Produce a potato growing business in MidCanterbury.

Clint Smythe (Grower member director) Clint launched his own growing business as a schoolboy and gained a degree in horticulture at Massey University before joining his family horticultural business/ Over the past 20 years has grown the business, diversifying into a number of specialised tuber crops.

He is currently completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Agri-Commerce at Massey University.

His industry roles included chairing vegetables.co.nz for the past eight years. He has now resigned from that position to focus on Potatoes NZ Inc. Chief Executive: Champak Mehta

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Champak, who was appointed as chief executive of Potatoes New Zealand Inc. in January of this year, has extensive experience of the value chain from producer to customer.

He completed his MBA at Otago in 2002 and joined the Fonterra corporate strategy team in early 2003.

During more than eight years with the company, he held a variety of strategy, business development and management roles including Business Development Manager in the United States and Regional Manager, Asia Pacific in Singapore for a global joint venture between Fonterra and Royal Friesland Campina.

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Bharat Bhana (Grower member director)

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“Huge room for fresh tomato growth”

By Barbara Gillham

Tomato growers have been urged to go to the supermarket and just watch customers shop for their produce. Confusion reigns because there is too much choice, they were told at the Tomatoes NZ annual meeting last month.

Professor David Hughes (Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at the Imperial College London) presented tomato growers at the conference with an interesting and at times humorous address titled, Global Trends and what do they mean to New Zealand Tomato Growers.

He touched on the ‘five a day’ programme which he believed was going well in New Zealand.

“That’s terrific because around the world, in the developed world certainly we’re exhorted to eat more fruit and vegetables. It’s the ‘eat well plate’ for the UK where something like 35 percent get into fresh fruit and vegetables. What’s intriguing is that we don’t listen to the government though.

In Europe and North America and in Japan fresh produce consumption is slipping backwards. What’s that about? So the government tells us to eat more but we don’t we just don’t listen.

“I’m just trying to get prepared for this talk and I’m thinking what do I know about tomatoes? Well not a lot, but tomatoes and onions are the two most popular world vegetables; it doesn’t matter where you go its tomatoes and onions.”

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Professor David Hughes.

“I think there is huge room for fresh tomato consumption and growth. What’s intriguing, and I would like to know what it is in New Zealand, is that the profile in terms of consumption is skewed to older people, women and higher income folk.

“In all sorts of markets that I look at, those three groups are likely to be disproportional consumers of fresh tomatoes. You need to know the people who are buying fresh tomatoes.”

David spoke of the various ways tomatoes are cooked or eaten around the world and the enormous health benefits of eating them that are well documented.

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“You need data on tomatoes on your domestic market or wherever you’re going, to see what percentage of household’s buys tomatoes, what are the best segments to focus on, are they under consuming, and why are they under consuming?

“If you look at other countries like America, how do they get their tomatoes, well of course a lot of it is on a pizza base and that of course is a constant challenge. It also explains to some extent why ‘five a day’ is going backwards in Europe and North America, because we are electing to drink fruit and our vegetables and increasingly it’s in some sort of processed form.”

David said a major challenge is how to present processed tomato products as containing beautiful, juicy healthy tomatoes which is something major manufacturers of processed tomatoes constantly have to do.

The importance of countries with a growing population, such as Asia, is starting to make these emerging markets look very interesting for the future.

In his presentation David spoke of other changing markets such as Japan who each year is losing one million people and in the next forty years will lose 30 million people which will see drops in what is being purchased.

“When you get a growing population and they are middle class anything that is consumed in additional quantities has a huge impact on world demand and world supply. Whatever they elect to eat more of reverberates around the world.

So what sorts of people are buying tomatoes? Having studied this David said it becomes apparent that young adults ‘under consume’ tomatoes but we increasingly eat more as we become older.

“In Europe some populations are dropping. Any country for example that was Roman Catholic and not necessarily because they are Roman Catholic you are now going from households that were six children a generation ago to now where they have one child and don’t repopulate. So Spain, Italy, Germany are going backwards whereas France and the UK are increasing due to immigration.

“You need data on tomatoes on your domestic market or wherever you’re going, to see what percentage of household’s buys tomatoes, what are the best segments to focus on, are they under consuming, and why are they under consuming?

“What is happening in China is very interesting because the population is aging; they have very low population growth due to their one child policy. In China they will grow old before they grow rich it’s going to become a real problem in China.

If we go forward another 20 years then the median age in China will be older than the United States.”So even though some of these countries are static or have low growth, or in some cases are going backwards they are still worth looking at if you have high value exports.”

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“We are not good at this in fresh food. What we do in most cases is produce and hope some other person picks it up on the other side and it’s gone. And when I say, well who’s your customer you often don’t know. So you need the data and you need to be using it to know exactly who buys and what’s more if they are what types of tomatoes are they buying. Then you need to look at what are they likely to buy with them, can we link the two together? There may be opportunities there for joint merchandising.” >

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The slides from presentations to the Tomatoes NZ conference are available on the Tomatoesnz.co.nz website.

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“If you’re a grower it’s a really good thing to go to a supermarket that has a big display of tomatoes and just watch how people shop, you can see the confusion.

I think the problem with tomatoes is you have these different breeds and people say we have got the very best tomatoes, but for the life of me I can’t tell the difference.

David went on to discuss the questions consumers ask when making a decision on what produce to buy and the power of branding which has an enormous influence on consumers choices.

“Confusion reigns in the supermarkets, in the UK I go into Sainsbury’s for example and I see 24 different fresh tomato products on sale ranging in price from 2 Euro a kg to roughly 20 Euro a kg. It’s good to have choice but if your confusing choice or have choice that is not relevant to consumers then they will just buy less. All research has shown that too much choice results in people buying less.

“If you’re a grower it’s a really good thing to go to a supermarket that has a big display of tomatoes and just watch how people shop, you can see the confusion. I think the problem with tomatoes is you have these different breeds and people say we have got the very best tomatoes, but for the life of me I can’t tell the difference.

Just because you can breed a different variety doesn’t mean you should. If it doesn’t actually deliver a benefit to the consumer and that is exactly what we want then you get confusion. If you breed ‘premium’ tomatoes then it has to be identifiably premium and

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marketed on its special benefits so the consumer says that’s the one I want and I am willing to pay for it.

“I think you’ve got to watch it as you expand, as you proliferate products in the fresh tomato category you can breed confusion and that’s the problem, it’s like a brick wall for the shopper. Urban based consumers have surprisingly little knowledge about your product. Also in fresh produce because there is a push towards volume and low price we have forgotten about flavour and that’s what fresh produce is about.

“In New Zealand, the UK and many of your export markets people don’t know the difference they need help and that’s a real challenge I think.”

David said the best market is the home market and the domestic market although small has a lot of room for growth. He went on to reiterate the importance of branding, particularly if the product was different in taste or appearance and the importance of regional/bi-lateral agreements which bring competition as well as opportunity.

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Alasdair MacLeod

Tomatoes strategy “unquestionably challenging”

By Barbara Gillham

The Tomatoes NZ annual meeting provided an interesting and informative insight into the organisation’s activities during the previous year and its plans for the future.

Chairman Alasdair MacLeod announced a strategy was coming together, which if successful would double the value of the sector over the next five years. The strategy had been taken to growers throughout the country.

“It is completely consistent with the HortNZ Strategy and is unquestionably challenging.

“It is a strategy that has to be driven by market led exports as the domestic market is not going to grow in sufficient size to enable us to double the value of the sector otherwise. It is important that it is focused on value not volume “It will involve targeting premium markets, collaboration to achieve skill, and require us to work closely with science and to share best practice, it will also require us to develop and sustain an orderly domestic market.

“It will involve targeting premium markets, collaboration to achieve skill, and require us to work closely with science and to share best practice, it will also require us to develop and sustain an orderly domestic market.”

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“We have taken the strategy message around the country and received a lot of support so for me it has been a very worthwhile process and is one I would love to do again this coming year. I would like to get out and talk to growers and get feedback on what we are doing, what we are doing well and more importantly on what we need to do better.”

Alasdair spoke of some of the numerous operational issues that have had to be dealt with, and of the arrival of irradiated tomatoes into New Zealand.

“This is due to happen any time in the next week or so and it is clearly going to have a negative impact on this sector. I am particularly worried the fear of eating irradiated fruit is going to depress the market.

“We will have to be very clear in the messages we put out about irradiated fruit that New Zealand fruit is never irradiated and it is safe to eat.”

Alasdair then spoke of the enormous amount of work that has been done throughout the year to pursue things such as the BCA (biocontrol agents) project, something he said presented enormous challenges but must be pursued.

Horticulture New Zealand Conference 2013

thinking

“It’s been a busy year, it’s been a year where we made some progress around the strategy, and we’ve had a lot of other things to deal with. However, I feel as chair of the Tomatoes NZ executive it’s been a year in which we are moving as a very cohesive unit, and it is a very constructive group of people that you have leading you.”

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IT SEEMS TO ME

by Features Ford

Do we need a permanent constitution?

If you have taken the Picton to Wellington ferry you may have enjoyed the slow smooth progress through Queen Charlotte Sound.

It is an interesting passage past curious, inviting bays and coves with a scattering of holiday homes. Uncultivated vegetation covers the slope of the hills down to meet clear water where there are blue penguins, diving gannets, yachts and fast motorboats.

There was a time not so long ago when there was one thing different. The hills were bare of native trees. They had been felled for the timber needed to build the homes and buildings of Wellington. Grass was sown as the trees came down and the sound of birds was replaced by the smell of sheep.

The permanent people of the Sounds lived a life which was the envy of many who were confined by the solid walls and momentum of town. When the weather fine they were fishermen_working the groper holes or long lining out in the Strait. If the nor’wester was funneling down the valleys or the southerly stirring up the sea they were farmers; lambing, crutching and dipping like farmers everywhere. There was a useful activity for all weathers.

There were drawbacks to isolation - electric power, the transport cost of tug and barge, and the continual effort to prevent the tawhini recovering the land for the forest. But the chi1dren. were natural, active and healthy. They had correspondence education and learned the lives of bird and animals. They could shoot and row and fish. Their mothers were multi-skilled homemakers who were probably more than half of all that was accomplished.

But now it has all changed. The water is still clear but the fish are few. The hills remain but are now covered with regenerating scrub, which is home for wasps, pigs and possums. The income earners are tourist operators or shellfish growers. Most of the people are only temporary occupiers of holiday homes, which have replaced the DIY baches.

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Features Ford

What happened? Same as elsewhere. The price of fuel went up and the return for wool and meat came down. Fishing quotas were applied and bureaucracy began to control the use of the land and the water.

It all happened gradually and silently. Looking through the wide ferry windows there is no sign such life ever existed. Sad eh? Couldn’t happen to me though?

Think of that government mantra - the more people there are, and the more money they have the greater the need for control.

Can you grow anything you think the market will need where ever you find convenient? Can you take as much water as the crop needs? How much fertiliser can go on? Which animals can graze where and how is their waste to be used? Who can work for you? What colour can you paint the farm shed?

Can you be sure you have robust security of tenure for your land? Who can we trust? Can politicians be controlled?

Do we need a permanent constitution?

As a people we can be too polite and trusting but things have changed and will continue to change. People who have no direct contact with the country are having great influence on the lives of those who live with the land. Is that fair when the waste and rubbish of cities foul the oceans with plastic bags?

The New Zealand constitution conversation was a chance for the public to have a say about their lives and what is needed to protect it.

If you missed that chance take another for if your voice is not heard your needs will not be considered.

Vol 68 No 7

NZ “shooting itself in the foot” Have we gone soft at the border? was the proposition at a biosecurity conference in Auckland recently. Glenys Christian attended: New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science (NZIAS) past-president Dr John Lancashire gave New Zealand a scorecard of just 55 percent for its biosecurity.

had been two very critical reports on biosecurity with that from the Auditor General criticising a lack of long term planning, saying New Zealand was not well prepared for a foot and mouth outbreak which could cost from $10 billion to $15 billion.

“We’ve got a way to go yet”.

The country was “shooting itself in the foot a bit” with both free trade agreements and greater tourism putting its clean, green status at risk.

A recent example of an incursion was that of the great white butterfly in Nelson. There had been 200 outbreaks in the last 18 months due to a reduction in biosecurity staff at the port where it came into the country, he said.

New Zealand’s recent track record included Psa, which had destroyed half the Gold kiwifruit crop last year.

Varroa was now rampant in Southland. There had also been Australian fruit fly finds as well as the arrival of the potato and tomato psyllid and clover root weevil. There

Mr Lancashire said the precautionary principle of “if there was the slightest risk, don’t do it” seemed to have been dropped.

There was “tremendous pressure” for free trade agreements when politicians should be letting those who knew what they were doing in protecting the country’s borders get on with it.

There was an impression that Australia took a tougher line than New Zealand, and it didn’t have varroa or Psa. “World class is an overused word. We have a good system but we have to work harder.”

Biosecurity Conference

Dr John Lancashire

“On the edge of the brink” New Zealand could not afford to be complacent or negligent when it came to biosecurity, Dr John Caradus, chief executive of AgResearch’s Grasslanz Technology told the conference.

“We live on the edge of the brink.”

An estimated 10 percent of containers being inspected at New Zealand ports was “way too low” and there could be problems with soil on the bottom of containers containing nematodes. Last year imports totalling 20.1 million tonnes came into

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the country, with 99.5 percent arriving by sea and 55 percent through the Port of Auckland.

Not all airline passengers’ luggage was x-rayed and six tonnes of fresh produce was placed into amnesty bins at airports every year.

“We need more inspections and all luggage x-rayed.”

While New Zealand did have a tight biosecurity system the challenge was to balance risk and regulation with adoption of technology the only way forward.

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GIA “will it be used?”

Shaun Slattery

Biosecurity Conference

GIA

“will it be used?”

“Government Industry Agreements (GIA) is your Hobson’s choice,” according to Shaun Slattery, from Market Access Solutionz.

“It will provide a decent framework but will it be used?”

If there were non-signatory beneficiaries the government was still able to levy them for their part of the cost.

Biosecurity could be viewed as either a cost or an investment.

Mr Slattery said the aim was to achieve better outcomes through better partnerships, involving more collaboration and establishing a proactive readiness for any incursion which would reduce any harm newly arrived pests could cause. But he admitted there were many challenges.

He told the conference that sharing the cost of biosecurity between government and the industries most affected gave more effective prioritisation of resources. GIA was not new but “the table was a lot fuller” with individual industries having more say about readiness and surveillance, and control options once there was a pest incursion.

With an incursion such as potato weevil just those growers would be involved but any fruit fly incursion would see many groups taking part in decision-making so that would become more complicated.

With cost sharing generally the government would pay a minimum of half of the cost of agreed activities or more than half if the public benefit of dealing with the particular pest was greater.

A legally binding deed of agreement was required to join GIA with groups needing to have an industry mandate, levy funding and a fiscal cap facility so individual industries could limit their exposure.

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“How do you get exacerbaters to pay their share?”

The government considered many already were paying through customs levies, for example.

There also needed to be transparency of monitoring and performance in the pre-border and border areas and closer engagement in risk assessment in these areas.

While the latest deed of agreement was still being considered Mr Slattery said he had heard unofficially the government had made some acknowledgement it would cover some areas of funding exacerbaters’ contribution.

But he was uncertain how this would pan out when it came to long-term management.

There were a number of issues for small sectors such as their capability to engage, affordability and prioritising risks.

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The aim was to achieve better outcomes through better partnerships, involving more collaboration and establishing a proactive readiness for any incursion which would reduce any harm newly arrived pests could cause.

“There are so many pests worth prioritising.”

“Preparedness is good.”

“If we do work on the top five what do we do when one from numbers six to 10 turns up?”

Growers were already paying money as well as having a say

Some sectors would be better at responding than others.

through combining resources.

Some negatives were the presumption that big sectors would

“Everyone is small compared with dairying, and kiwifruit is big in horticulture.”

get all the attention in government prioritisation of pests.

He believed GIA was flexible enough to cope with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) also having a major role in prioritising possible pests.

have to live with the pest anyway?”

One positive of GIA was that there was more influence where it mattered.

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Biosecurity Conference

Peter Silcock

Nathan Guy

Incursions threaten $10b by 2020 Biosecurity incursions could prevent horticulture from achieving its $10 billion by 2020 strategy. This is according to HortNZ chief executive Peter Silcock, who was asked to tell the biosecurity conference about the threats to horticulture presented by incursions.

“The key premise of the strategy is that unless we move away from commodity exports and create a stronger market focus, targeting key markets and consumers who are willing and able to pay for premium for New Zealand products then our industry will shrink rather than grow in the future. This strategy is not about feeding the world, it’s all about growing values rather than volume.”

He outlined the four strategic outcomes of the strategy and how biosecurity incursions could compromise all of them.

Set the standard for sustainably produced products Controlling new pests often requires growers to revert to older hasher chemical options, spray more frequently, to abandon IPM programmes.

Build global competitiveness Biosecurity incursions can have very significant impact on marketable yields. The first few years following the arrival of a new pest can be very challenging Dominate product categories within target markets The devastating impacts on market access are the reason that Fruit fly is New Zealand horticulture’s Number 1 unwanted pest.

The actual market restrictions imposed would depend on the fruit fly species found, its distribution internationally and the extent of the incursion here in NZ.

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It is accurate to say that an incursion of any one of a range of fruit fly species into New Zealand would create massive market disruption.

Biosecurity could also be used as a trade barrier, he said.

“Protectionism is alive and well in our export markets and not just across the ditch either.”

Create value, commercialise products and control IP Fortunately this strategy output is not directly impacted by biosecurity incursions.

But, of course while we are battling new biosecurity incursions our innovative spirit and innovative dollar are not focused on the market they are focused on survival.

“All countries face biosecurity threats and New Zealand’s isolation gives us a unique opportunity to manage this critical issue better than our competitors.

“We need to build a stronger partnership between industry, government and science to do that.”

Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy used the conference to announce a trial of x-ray screening of passengers’ luggage in Australia, with the result forwarded to quarantine services here so it could check for anything suspicious while flights were in the air.

“New Zealand is leading the game and this could be another powerful tool.”

It could be applied to passengers coming from Asia, the Pacific and Europe.

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Mr Guy said he wanted to challenge the title of the conference, organised by the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science (NZIAS): Have we gone soft at the border? for two reasons. 

It took a simplistic approach when New Zealand’s biosecurity system took effect across a number of different stages, all of which needed to be strong and regularly reviewed.



 

“There’s always the chance of an unwanted pest being introduced. Even if you halted all trade and movement of people you wouldn’t eliminate all risk.”

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“And there are experts in this area here so it’s a chance for continual advice to come to me.”

Mr Guy said primary sector exports made up 72 percent of total exports from New Zealand and the country had a reputation for a strong biosecurity system and a pest-free status.



     

There were 175,000 items coming across New Zealand’s borders every day and 10 million travellers coming in and going out every year.

 

“It’s not possible to do exhaustive testing.”

 

“We’ve got to work smartly to manage every risk.”

Biosecurity was his number one priority with the aim being a high level of service across all areas. There was a misconception that the Budget had seen biosecurity funding cut which came from funding being temporarily higher last year to pay for introduction of a joint management system. From 2008 staff numbers had decreased by just 1.9% mainly as a response to the global financial crisis which had caused a reduction in trade flows. But the Ministry for Primary Industries was bolstering numbers of quarantine inspectors with 75 more being in place or being recruited, and detector dog team numbers boosted to 34 across the country. All passengers arriving in the country had some form of biosecurity screening with a focus on those presenting a high rather than low risk.

Mr Guy said there had been several recent exercises simulating a disease incursion and testing readiness for that. New Zealand was also sharing intelligence with Australia, improving its training and personnel and collaborating on future plans.

The Government Industry Agreement (GIA) was an opportunity for industries to identify what they saw as the biggest bioscurity risks to them and to collaborate with the Government.

In answer to a question about pre-border checks not being strong enough Mr Guy said it was a case of trusting trade partners but relying on the experts. There had been two “very robust reports” into palm kernel imports from Malaysia and Indonesia and as a result a couple of areas had been tightened.

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       

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 

       

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Biosecurity Conference

Roger Smith

Christine Reed

MPI “getting tough” on freight The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) was aligning its resources and focusing on what mattered most, said deputy director-general, verification systems, Roger Smith.

“One area is containers. We need to do more and we are.”

More information was being gathered than previously with moves towards profiling individual containers in the same way as airline passengers. Dirty city shoes they might wear were a small risk compared with the 650,000 containers a year entering New Zealand, as well as 90,000 vehicles.

MPI had carried out an intensive survey of 7,000 passengers last years to develop better systems which were more measurable. Because MPI didn’t know what the real risk was in some pathways, New Zealand didn’t have a world class biosecurity system.

“We need to isolate areas and think about them in a different way.”

A high risk passenger project had found through sampling that New Zealand and Australian passengers had much greater awareness of prohibited items, while some ethnic groups didn’t see food as a biosecurity risk. In the case of Chinese travellers New Zealand was taking the border further offshore and increasing education, advertising and signage about restrictions.

There had also been improvements in training accredited persons, which Mr Smith said had been

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Incursions will increase: warning “a good system but poorly run”. It was toughening up on compliance and telling partners such as freight forwarders if they didn’t take their obligations seriously “we will close you down”.

The Auditor General report had contained some fair criticism of present biosecurity systems but an extensive programme of exercises was planned “because there will be incursions”.

MPI risk assessment manager Christine Reed gave details of potential pests MPI was keeping a close watch out for. The raspberry leaf blotch virus was thought to be transmitted by a mite, but research outcomes were still being waited on to confirm this.

A moth which usually attacked tomatoes had been found on capsicums in the Netherlands, so MPI was seeking more information as part of taking an over-cautionary approach.

An outbreak of Asian gypsy moth in Canada had meant more information had been sent out to help detect an importation on machinery imports, and an eye was being kept on an undiagnosed disease on Australian pomegranates.

MPI was keeping a further watch on a new bacteria on onions, a fig fly found in Pennsylvania in the US not in tropical conditions and a red-necked, long-horned beetle found on stone fruit in Italy.

Ms Reed said the next stage of widening the scope of MPI’s activities was increasing the range of sources it received information from as well as semi-automation of some of these systems. It was working more closely with counterparts in Australia to create more effective partnerships to support risk management where it was best placed to do so.

Growers needed to be highly engaged when it came to preventing biosecurity incursions, said Better Border Biosecurity director, Dr David Teulon.

“They’re the people who first notice something.”

And he warned the rate of these incursions was likely to increase despite everyone seeing biosecurity as being very important and a more strategic approach being taken over the last 20 years.

Better Border Biosecurity (BBB) was made up of representatives of four Crown Research Institutes, Lincoln University and the Forest Owners Association along with MPI and the Department of Conservation. He worked with five team leaders who were well connected throughout the world with a focus on borders and plants as well as biological control organisms. BBB was not concerned with pest management or cross-sectional issues, but concentrated on diagnosing risks inherent in the many pathways by which unwanted plants could get into the country. There were known known risks such a fruit fly, unknown known risks such as Psa, known unknowns such as the great white butterfly and unknown unknowns such as liberibacter associated with the tomato and potato psyllid.

At question time HortNZ chief executive Peter Silcock asked about moves to get the New Zealand public more connected into biosecurity.

“We have to adjust the science and work slightly differently on then all,” he said.

“It needs to be part of their lifestyle like going fishing or walking in the bush.”

• Understanding biosecurity systems and having access to good data.

Ms Reed admitted more could be done especially in communicating “some really good things that are going on”. In response to a question asking if MPI staff had enough experience in seeing potential pests in the field, she said it had captured skills from outside New Zealand to make up “very multi-cultural expertise. But we could always do more.”

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It prioritised the risks of different pests by:

• Balancing research between known and unknown risks and between basic and applied science.

• Focussing on the impact of an incursion rather than the numbers involved.

• Ensuring the correct capability was engaged and • Maintaining effective relationships.

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Dr David Tanner

Biosecurity Conference

Psa’s economic and social cost Kiwifruit growers had known about the threat of Psa for 25 years, said Dr David Tanner, general manager of science and innovation at Zespri.

He said the kiwifruit industry was growing before the discovery of Psa in November 2010. But after just three months they realised it couldn’t be contained and they would have to live with the significant economic and social cost.

This had been estimated at $800 million to $900 million over 15 years and that figure did not include equity losses.

With its national pest management plan in place the industry was now cautiously optimistic. With many Zespri Gold vines removed and replaced with a more tolerant variety growth could be seen in the category in the next two to three years.

“We will get through this.”

The research and development strategy was being refreshed to try to neutralise the financial impact of Psa, as well as looking at other threats. Zespri had established a top 10 list for other risks with preparatory guides for each.

But Mr Tanner said there were many new risks, one being a variation of Psa identified in Brazil. The question was who would fund learning about these risks?

Mr Tanner said resources had been developed to help growers, including an incursion management plan as well as a technical resource plan for a fruit fly incursion.

He listed the various ways such a threat could manifest itself.

It could be through indifference, lack of communication or consultation, lack of connection between MPI and its key stakeholders, poor decision-making ability, lack of funding or continued use of past decision-making models.

40

Conference 2013

These problems could be overcome by industry ownership of biosecurity issues, working with government to raise awareness, research and development investment keeping up with developments offshore, a base capability in research and development, with BBB more widely connected to the industry base, and learning from others.

Mr Tanner said important lessons the kiwifruit industry had learned from the Psa incursion were around leadership.

The different stages of the impact on growers also needed to be recognised, as they moved through shock, to acceptance and on to hope. It was also important to acknowledge that those servicing the industry were also working under pressure.

Information to growers needed to go out in waves and be seasonally appropriate, and it needed to be recognised that information requirements varied from small to large amounts.

Other industries needed to be prepared for a similar situation, respond rapidly, engage and own that response, talk and listen to the government and the public, remain agile and on edge “because the next threat is just around the corner”.

When it came to the cost of GIA involvement he urged industries not to decry the importance of biosecurity.

“It’s not what you can’t afford to spend, it’s what you can’t afford to lose.”

Vol 68 No 7

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Pesky pests and giant snails

By Bill Patterson

The USDA recently promoted a national Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month and as a reminder of invasive pest dangers it issued a 15-strong list of nasty, illegal and exotic “immigrants.”

And nine were pesky pests that attack crops and vines with the alarming thing for us being that most of them are found on the West Coast of the United States or Hawaii and are very conveniently placed for hitchhiking on flights to New Zealand.

An invasion situation worth looking at that of the formidable Giant African Snail again that was believed to have been smuggled originally into the Florida as a boy’s pet. Mark Fagan of the Florida Department of Agriculture tells of a one smuggling case when

these snails, which can grow up to 20cms in length and weigh up to a kilo, were found under the skirt of a woman flying back from Nigeria.

It was thought that the snails had been eradicated from the area years ago but in September 2011, a local home owner spotted one in his garden. Since then, more than 117,000 snails have been caught by Miami-Dade County, Florida, authorities who have been destroying up to 1,000 each week.

Florida is a long way from New Zealand but we can’t relax our border surveillance especially as in March too close for comfort a snail the size of a cricket ball and identified later as a Great African Land Snail was found creeping across a Brisbane container yard.

People – and this could apply to New Zealand travellers as well – don’t always take the threat posed by pests

42

News

seriously, says Ken Gilliland, director of international trade and transportation for Western Growers a trade group representing farmers in Arizona and California, where much of the nation’s fresh produce is grown.

“It just takes one or two people” carrying infected fruit or vegetables to an uninfected area to start an infestation, he says. “They don’t see the direct impact they might have, but long term they’re going to pay for it in higher prices because of costs involved in treating crops and inspecting them.”

The Asian citrus psyllid, which caused $4.5 billion in losses to Florida orange and grapefruit growers, became established in California after one person brought a cutting from a citrus plant home from a trip to Asia, and shared it with neighbours.

New Zealand tourists in Australia or the United States should be aware that besides strict country border security controls there are restrictions – that carry heavy fines – especially for plants, fruit and vegetables being carried across state boundaries.

In the US bans even extend to movement of recently killed plant material including firewood, lumber, and wood packaging material across state lines due the fact that they can carry many pests.

Vol 68 No 7

The fifteen nasties’ list includes moths, flies, beetles, ants, a louse, snail and two pathogens.

They range from the Asian Citrus Psyllid, which threatens to destroy the US orange crop, to the Giant African Snail.

Crop and plant nasties listed are:

et any it can’t g n e h w o d cc ans. Foun il r and stu ican Sna itis in hum int, plaste r g a f p in n A ts e a t m e n se Gia long, it t can cau ht inches rasite tha a p a y Up to eig rr ca nts. Can of 500 pla s Disease . which turn reening in Florida G s u Disease, r g t i in C n e d re n G syllid a ies Citrus itrus P kle, it carr n ri p s Asian C te ola Florida. of a choc alifornia, The size C in d n in r. Fou t. Found fruit bitte auses ro c , s h e t p o ra pevine M rs and g an Gra pe flowe ra g ts a Europe e e illar stag In caterp 1 . und in 2 California hrubs. Fo s d n a s e y Moth ies of tre 300 spec an Gyps e s p te o a r li u fo E e de illar stag In caterp d D.C. Ventura states an dicated in ra E . s p cro oth and field odling M es, plants C e tr e it ls u a fr F oys and destr Feeds on alif.

County, C Hawaii. rnia and fo li h a t C o M in d ple nts. Foun rown Ap arden pla g Light B d n a s 50 crop unfit for Attacks 2 ing them k a m , s ly vegetable FruitF nuts and rranean n e o t s i d d e e M e, it fe . illar stag in Hawaii In caterp n. Found o ti p m u s on alifornia human c ated in C ic d ra E . go and man ly rly citrus FruitF la n u a ic c i rt x a Me lants, p g to 50 p Damagin s. and Texa awaii. und in H o F . s ly le b F ta l Fruit and vege g crops Orienta t affectin e the 230 fruits o n n a e th il h re w o ak Attacks m e list and sed to m lso on th ite ash trees u baseball players a is r e Bor US rn wh ian Ash tens the northe ats beloved by a b The As re ll a th ts it baseb and plan uisville slugger o L d fame usiasts. and enth

Angry bird alert In February the Ministry for Primary Industries received reports that a small number of red vented bulbul birds are present in the wider Auckland area.

MPI is working with the Auckland Council and the Department of Conservation to capture the birds and prevent their establishment in New Zealand.

It is not known how the recently sighted birds arrived in Auckland, but they may have been released from a sea-vessel arriving in Auckland from

Vol 68 No 7

elsewhere in the Pacific. Bulbuls are known to cause significant damage to fruit and vegetable crops and aggressively chase and attack other birds. They will feed on native fruits, berries, insects, flower nectar, seeds and buds displacing species such as kereru by their aggressive competitive nature. They may also help in the spread of seeds of other invasive species.

The red vented bulbul is native to parts of Asia (Pakistan to southwest

China) and has been introduced to a number of Pacific Islands where it is now considered to be a serious invasive pest.

News

43

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Japanese eyes on our boysenberries

By Anne Hardie

Sunny Health Company in Japan produces health supplements and was looking for something different, which it found in boysenberries, a fruit seldom seen there. Its research showed the boysenberry was high in a naturally-occurring polyphenol antioxidant called ellagic acid - 300 times more powerful than blueberries which have been promoted as being good for eyesight, according to a company spokesperson, Masahiro Nishimura.

The result is capsules of boysenberry powder it imports from Nelson-based company, Sujohn Berryfruits, which was established by former growers, John and Sue Gibb.

Today they supply the New Zealand commercial and retail market with frozen berries and handle around 80 percent of New Zealand’s export boysenberries, including turning it into powder for Sunny Health. > Vol Vol 68 68 No No 67

Sunny Health representatives (from left), Jun Hashimoto and Masahiro Nishimura, with Sujohn owners, John and Sue Gibb.

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A Japanese film crew has been capturing footage of the New Zealand boysenberry industry for a TV campaign promoting its benefits as an eyesight supplement.

45

Boysenberry grower, Glen Holland, is the focus for a Japanese film crew.

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Feature

Vol 68 No 6

Blueberries were a common fruit in Japan, but boysenberries were rarely seen, so few people had ever eaten them. As well as the health benefits, the marketing campaign focuses on New Zealand’s green image.

John Gibb said their small Nelson company simply did not have the ability to market products in Japan, so it was a huge bonus having a Japanese company developing a marketing campaign.

“It’s just not possible for a small company like Sujohn to promote product in Japan without these people.”

The footage, which includes the Sujohn factory and interviews with grower, Glen Holland, will be used for TV infomercials on Japanese shopping channels. The film crew will be back later in the year to take further footage of the boysenberry crop when the berries are ready for harvest.

Holland and his wife, Maree, grow 40 ha of boysenberries that will produce around 700 tonne of fruit this year, making it the largest boysenberry garden in the world. A view over their boysenberry garden is displayed on the packaged capsules that are sold in Japan.

Nishimura said blueberries were a common fruit in Japan, but boysenberries were rarely seen, so few people had ever eaten them. As well as the health benefits, the marketing campaign focuses on New Zealand’s green image.

It’s still early days marketing the boysenberry capsules, but Nishimura said demand was growing fast and the company was already getting return customers.

Boysenberries are more traditionally known as a source of folic acid which is one of the few health claims allowed in New Zealand.

Packaged boysenberry capsules to improve eyesight.

Shanley Berry Plants For quality strawberry plants, delivered to your requirements.

Vol 68 No 7

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News

47

Future looks bright for those who know their onions

By Steve McArthur

Onions cover 3.5 million hectares of the earth, producing 65 million tonnes.

The humble onion is among the most consumed vegetable species in the world. Raw or cooked, it is an indispensable ingredient in all cuisines.

Onions are most popular in Libya with 30kg consumed per person per year, while people in the Netherlands who dominate world exports, consume a meagre 6kg per person per year.

convert to the benefits of higher performing hybrid varieties.

Leading the development of improved onion varieties is Hazera-Nickerson; the daughter company of Limagrain, the second largest seeds company in the world of vegetable seeds.

World onion consumption is expected to rise significantly from its current level in 2011, when every person averaged a consumption of 6.2kg per year. With onions becoming more widely used in developing countries, consumption is predicted to reach 9.5kg per year by 2050. There will need to be double the onion production in the next thirty years, once the increase in population is added to the mix.

Limagrain is an agricultural co-operative group, founded and managed by French farmers. The co-operative has 3,500 farmer members, 100 research stations located across the globe and employs 7,800 people. The farmer shareholders give the company a unique position, in that they are both customers and suppliers to the co-operative.

Achieving this increased output from less input, is a major challenge that onion producers face. Improved varieties will provide a considerable part of the solution to meet consumer demand from limited resources, including land and water.

This past decade has seen many growers around the globe

Limagrain operates its vegetable seeds business through four global organisations. These are HM.Clause, Hazera-Nickerson, Vilmorin and Mikado Kyowa Seeds. It is their business unit of Hazera-Nickerson that leads the Limagrain breeding in onions.

48

Feature

Vol 68 No 7

Left: Staff at the Rilland research station making new onion varieties Above: Hans van den Biggelaar -Phytopathologist - Explaining fusarium resistance in onions

Vol 68 No 7

Feature

49

Onion breeding takes time, starting from scratch it takes 20 years or ten generations for the commercial introduction of a new onion variety.

Through acquisitions of onion breeding programmes and by combining breeding material from different companies within the co-operative. The Hazera-Nickerson business unit has built a range for onions which enables it to offer varieties that cover the most important day lengths, as well as brown, pink, red and white bulb onions.

Onion breeding takes time, starting from scratch it takes 20 years or ten generations for the commercial introduction of a new onion variety. Even with modern technology, it is challenging to overcome the time taken to develop varieties and to develop diversity in breeding lines.

Hazera-Nickerson have based their onion program on the merger of many onion breeding programs such as; Hazera in Israel, Nickerson-Zwaan in the Netherlands, Global Genetics in the USA and Advanta in the Netherlands.

Hazera-Nickerson devotes NZ$6 million annually to its onion research to ensure the talented group of breeders and scientists, have the best tools available to meet future demands.

The geni of allium includes many edible vegetable species that you may know as products such as onion, leek, garlic

Breeding is increasingly being based on science; however, it remains as much an art as it is a science.

Every onion plant in the Rilland research station has a name and is well cared for

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Feature

Vol 68 No 7

and shallot. These represent just four of the total of eight hundred allium species. This natural genetic diversity in the onion species is the main driver of hybrid development. The breeders require a wide array of genetic diversity to reveal the desired naturally available genes and traits. Wild species of allium are used as a primary source for natural genetic variation in the breeding programme.

The pre-breeder uses classical breeding techniques, such as back-crossing to fix newly discovered resistances in the onions. Breeding is increasingly being based on science; however, it remains as much an art as it is a science. There are 7 or 8 highly technical scientific disciplines behind the breeder that helps enable the creation of successful varieties.

As an example in 2007; Hazera-Nickerson was the first company to introduce downy mildew (Peronospora destructor) resistance in onion varieties. The breeders through backcrossing techniques are bringing the downy mildew resistance across its range. Other serious diseases are front of mind and they are working tirelessly on new disease resistances such as fusarium.

Reinout de Heer - Prebreeder Alliums - working with nature

The breeding process consists of the creation of genetic variation, selection of the lines, stabilising the lines,

Vol 68 No 7

Feature

51

Hazera-Nickerson in 2010 invested over NZ$4 million in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands, a region known worldwide as an important centre for production, packing and exporting of onions for consumers around the world.

Above: State of the art greenhouse used to hold pollination cages for onion seed production Below: Wim van Haecke - Senior Onion Breeder at Nickerson Zwaan At work in the greenhouse

evaluation of lines and hybrids, release of hybrids for field trials, production of stock for parental lines, production of commercial hybrid seed and finally commercial release. To develop a new female or A line takes four generations (eight years). With just one generation every two years it is easy to use up 20 years or the best part of most breeders’ careers.

Onion research efforts focus on several topics for the farmers, packers, retailers and consumers. Along with improving traits like yield, the clear focus for Hazera-Nickerson is to improve storability & dormancy, improve disease resistance in the leaf & bulb and improve the taste, health and convenience for consumers.

To facilitate this Hazera-Nickerson in 2010 invested over NZ$4 million in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands, a region known worldwide as an important centre for production, packing and exporting of onions for consumers around the world. The Nickerson-Zwaan Rilland research station is a state of the art facility devoted to onions. Features of this research site include; a hectare of high tech greenhouse, extensive laboratories, a phytopathology department and three sheds for curing and drying onion bulbs.

For the skilled breeders, it is as easy as A,B,C. The threeway hybrids are made using a Cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) female or A-Line which does not produce pollen. The pollen comes from male fertile B and C lines, which do produce pollen. The B line is used to maintain the sterility of the A line.

The breeding lines at flowering are kept isolated by covering

52

Feature

with specially designed bags that keep the pollen where it is desired. Flies are used to pollinate the parent lines, with fly larvae being tied into the pollination bags. The flies hatch after three days and get to work pollinating the flowers.

Hazera-Nickerson use only classical breeding methods in developing their varieties. Modern scientific technology such as marker technology increases the probability of making a successful variety. Inoculating plants with diseases such as fusarium in the laboratory also speeds up the breeding process as in the field the diseases are not reliably present.

The future looks bright for onion producers, as demand for onions rises the plant breeding community is also rising to the challenges making varieties that offer improvements for growers, packers, retailers and consumers.

Vol 68 No 7

Thinking vegetable seeds? Think Terranova.

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• Early maturing with good vigour and germination for early season plantings.

• Very uniform cobs with round ‘bullet head’ ends on cylindrical cobs.

• Average cob length 19cm and 5.5cm diameter with 14-16 row count.

• Dark green husk with very good extension for protection against bird damage.

• Very good tip fill.

• • • • • •

Dark green tight husks.

Attractive cylindrical cobs with straight rows.

Excellent tip fill.

Strong resistance against rust.

Mid season maturity, not suitable for early season production.

Strong, vigorous plants.

Hybrid Pumpkins

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• Prolific fruit set makes this a very high yielding variety.

• Thick flesh with dark orange colour for good presentation.

• Good storage.

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Early maturing, bush type.

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PRODUCT GROUP

ASPARAGUS COUNCIL

DR PETER G FALLOON Aspara Pacific Ltd Figure 1

IN BRIEF Harvester increases yields A new asparagus harvesting machine has resulted in improved productivity, less staff turn over and better cool chain management.

Yields have also increased as less crop is mowed because of “no shows” by harvesting staff.

Surfboard rigs better for staff Surfboard harvesting rigs provide asparagus growers with significant improvements in productivity of staff used to harvest the crop, reducing the cost/kg of harvesting fresh asparagus while at the same time reducing harvester fatigue and improving staff retention.

Ergonomic machine improves productivity A new asparagus harvesting machine has resulted in improved productivity, less staff turn over and better cool chain management. Yields have also increased as less crop is mowed because of “no shows” by harvesting staff.

Asparagus harvesting is generally regarded as hard work. Harvesters spend six to eight hours per day, seven days a week bent over at the waist.

At the same time they must carry the harvested crop before unloading into field bins . Each harvester walks several kilometers per day along the rows harvesting spears. The harvest season lasts up to 100 days. This is a process that has changed little over the last 2000 years since the Romans first harvested asparagus.

The cost of harvesting asparagus is the biggest annual cost for asparagus growers with average costs ranging

54

Product groups

between $1.10 and $1.40 per kg of asparagus. In low yielding crops, during periods of cold weather or towards the end of the season when yields decline, harvest costs are often considerably higher. During these periods harvest costs may exceed $2.50/kg. Gross returns from processing companies are about $3.00/kg with local market and export returns between $4$5.50/kg at the farm gate. With New Zealand’s relatively high labour rates and long distance from international markets, improvements need to be made to reduce the cost of asparagus harvesting.

Vol 68 No 7

New harvesting machine developments In the past, harvesting rigs have been developed that support harvesters in bucket seats. Staff bend forward and cut the asparagus as it passes between their out-stretched legs. These have worked well when harvesting spears for the cannery (18cm long) as the bottom of the seat supporting the staff needs to be only about 20cm above the row to avoid damaging spears that have not reached the harvest height of 18cm. However, the local and fresh export markets require spears 2325cm long. For these markets staff on rigs have to sit about 30cm above the row while still cutting the spears at ground level. This means they are bent like a staple for several hours each day resulting in back strain.

In the first step towards automated asparagus harvesting, a new asparagus harvesting rig was built in Canterbury. The harvesters lie flat on a padded board like a surfboard.

The “surfboard” is connected to an hydraulic ram that the harvesters use to move the surfboard back or forward by using foot pedals. When they come to a clump of spears, all of which need to be harvested, they can slide the surfboard backwards while the rig continues moving forward uninterrupted. The harvester stops over the clump of spears while the rig continues forward. They then push the other pedal to move the surfboard forward to catch up to the position of the other harvesters on the rig.

These machines have been evaluated over four years in Canterbury and have been found to offer the following advantages; • Less back ache for harvesters • Less picker fatigue as harvesters are carried instead of having to walk several km per day carrying harvested crop. This has led to better staff retention.

• Better cool chain management of harvested crop – cut spears are removed from the field and placed in refrigeration quicker • Better management of staff – it is easier to manage picker performance on a machine where it is easy to determine which harvester harvested which row. This is often difficult when harvesters walk through the asparagus in a group.

Case study Lakelands Asparagus had 20 ha of asparagus at Greenpark in Canterbury.

Because intensive horticulture is not common in Canterbury, there was not a reliable labour pool during spring for harvesting asparagus. RSE staff were considered but the costs associated with housing and pastoral care were too high so backpackers and locals were employed. This meant that between 30-40 staff were needed on the books to ensure that sufficient staff turned up each day to harvest the crop.

 

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   

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

 



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

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

Vol 68 No 7

Product groups

55

PRODUCT GROUP

ASPARAGUS COUNCIL

Year

Paid Yield (t/ha)

Total from Block(t)

Harvest Staff (per ha)

Harvest Method

2007

1.67

33.44

1.5-2.0

Walk

2008

1.37

27.48

1.5-1.9

Walk

3.76

46.94

0.88

Surfboard rig

2010

3.43

42.87

0.88

Surfboard rig

2011

3.69

46.10

0.59

Surfboard rig

2009*

Table 1. Comparison between traditional walk harvesting (2007’08) and performance of surfboard harvesting rigs (2009-’11) on paid yields / ha , total tonnage harvested and harvest staff numbers/ha in a block of asparagus in Canterbury over five harvest season.

* Area harvested reduced from 20 ha harvested by traditional walk harvesters to 13.5 ha harvested with three picking rigs in 2009 and 2010 and two rigs in 2011.

Staff “no shows” were common, especially during long weekends (Labour Day and Christchurch Show Day) which fall in the middle of the asparagus season. This meant the crop often got “out of control’ growing well past an optimum harvest length and had to be mowed to ground level. Consequently yield targets were never met with a maximum of 38 tonnes of marketable asparagus being harvested form the block ie1.9 t/ha..

Results The use of surfboard harvesting rigs has increased the tonnage of crop harvested from a maximum of 38 tonnes off 20 ha to 47 tonnes off 13.5 ha (Table 1).

In 2008 one of three three-row picking rigs was converted from bucket seats to a surfboard machine. It performed well although a number of harvesters who were familiar with the traditional way of harvesting asparagus were initially reluctant to try the new approach. The following season two more rigs were converted. Each rig has one driver and three harvesters who lie flat on the surfboards with their bodies horizontal about 90 cm above the rows. Their arms hang beneath them.

Asparagus is harvested with a steak knife and placed in crates that are slung just above soil level and beside the pickers (Figure 1).

In addition to increased productivity achieved by increasing the total yield off a smaller harvested area, there was less staff turnover when the machines were used. The same harvesting crew was retained for the whole season.

This is especially important when fresh export started in the second half of the season. At this time yields decline resulting in fewer spears of harvest length per m of row. Under these conditions, it is important to have harvesters who can rapidly cut the spears and judge which is marketable and which should be rejected and left in the field. As the crop thins out, the machines move faster across the field often moving at 5-6km per hour ie much quicker than harvesters can move who are walking. This helps keep down the cost of harvesting the asparagus.

Lakelands Asparagus has now used the machines for five harvest seasons.

At the same time that the third rig was competed, the area of asparagus was reduced from 20 ha to 13.5 ha because of uneven crop establishment in one field. The length of the rows was 800m.

During the main export period in December, the maximum time taken was 20 minutes from harvesting the first spear at the start of an 800m row and putting that spear into a refrigerated truck in the field, when the machines were used. With walk

56

Product groups

picking this could be as long as 1.5 to 2 hours and the spears were hotter.

The less heat unit accumulation after harvest, the longer the shelf like of asparagus. The machines resulted in fresher asparagus reaching the consumer, vital when supplying fresh export markets.

Conclusion Surfboard harvesting rigs provide asparagus growers with significant improvements in productivity of staff used to harvest the crop, reducing the cost/kg of harvesting fresh asparagus while at the same time reducing harvester fatigue and improving staff retention.

The machines allow better staff management and improve the cool chain resulting in fresher asparagus being delivered to demanding local and export markets.

More efficient rigs that cover more than three rows e.g five or seven rows would increase the ratio of harvesters to drivers. However, the wider the rig the more important it is to have flat fields for the machines to operate effectively. In time, robotic harvesting hands on GPS guided machines may further reduce labour costs associated with asparagus harvesting.

Vol 68 No 7

SEE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CABBAGE! Who were the first to grow vegetables commercially in New Zealand?

G R O W IN G TOGETHER

ZEALAND HISTORY OF THE NEW TO VEGETABLE AND POTA ON GROWERS FEDERATI

$45.00

What influence did World War II have on the process vegetable industry?

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PRODUCT GROUP

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION BOARD

The psyllid wars –

cracking the biological enigma code

DR LINDSAY FUNG

PhD topic: Population phenology of tomato/potato psyllid (TPP) Bactericera cockerelli (Homoptera: Psyllidae) and the efficiency of a selected natural enemy for its control

Business Manager Research and Innovation Board

PhD candidate: Luc Tran

IN BRIEF

Supervisors: Associate Professor Susan Worner (Bio-Protection Research Centre and Lincoln University), Dr David Teulon (BioProtection Research Centre and Plant & Food Research), Dr Nadine Berry (Plant & Food Research), Dr Roddy Hale (Lincoln University)

Life history of TPP Luc’s work is particularly important in that it is providing the New Zealand industry with knowledge that underpins the life history of TPP.

Applicable to growers’ needs The project has proved to be a great example of student science being very applicable for grower’s needs.

Industry has been kept up to date on Luc’s progress during his study through presentations at a number of meetings as well as in industry journal articles.

Where: Bio-Protection Research Centre at Lincoln University

Funded (in part) by: Potatoes New Zealand, Vegetables New Zealand and Tomatoes New Zealand Update: August 2013 Luc Tran’s PhD, supported by Potatoes NZ, Tomatoes NZ, Vegetables NZ, along with Plant and Food Research and BioForce, has now been completed.

Luc’s work is particularly important in that it is providing the New Zealand industry with knowledge that underpins the life history of TPP. The research objectives for his PhD were to: • determine the developmental requirements of different life stages of TPP • determine the efficiency of a selected natural enemy in regulating TPP • develop and compare forecasting models based on the relationship between the psyllid, its host and climate variables

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• determine the potential for models to predict seasonal timing, and maybe potential abundance of TPP. The project has proved to be a great example of student science being very applicable for grower’s needs.

Industry has been kept up to date on Luc’s progress during his study through presentations at a number of meetings as well as in industry journal articles. In particular, Luc’s work on TPP development is enabling us to understand the progress of generations throughout the season (see story attached).

“Growers and consultants have endeavoured to incorporate the results of Luc’s simple degree day (DD) work into their TPP management programmes”, says Tim Herman, Agrivet Services. “We can’t use it to time our insecticide applications throughout the season, but we are trying to use it to identify seasons with higher or lower pressure, and to modify the interval between applications and the choice of insecticide.”

“Information on the fluctuations of generation times in different locations and in different seasons is critical for developing robust resistance management strategies” says Gordon Harris, Zelam Ltd. Luc has also developed a more complex forecasting model that is providing scientists with a basis for attempting to predict the timing of generations more accurately.

Some of Luc’s work has already been published in a peer reviewed scientific journal demonstrating the acceptance of his research at an international level.

Additional manuscripts from his thesis are in the process of being written.

Vol 68 No 7

Figure 1. Potential number of generations for tomato potato psyllid in the main potato-growing regions of New Zealand for cold, average and hot pre-crop emergence and post-crop emergence periods. Number of generations presented is for the main potato crop, unless stated otherwise.

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Vol 68 No 7

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RESEARCH AND INNOVATION BOARD

Using Degree Days to time insecticide applications for tomato potato psyllid Jessica Vereijssen1, Luc Tran2, Sue Worner2, and David Teulon1,2 1The

New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Private Bag 4704, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

2Bio-Protection

Research Centre, PO Box 84, Lincoln University 7674, Christchurch, New Zealand

The tomato potato psyllid (TPP), Bactericera cockerelli, invaded New Zealand in 2006 and has now spread throughout most of the country.

TPP, an economically important pest of solanaceous crops, vectors the bacterium “Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum”, which is associated with zebra chip disease of potato. Current TPP pest management practices in potato and outdoor tomato crops rely on regular applications of insecticides.

These practices are not only costly but are likely to have a negative impact on the environment and beneficial insect species while increasing the potential for insecticide resistance in TPP. As part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach, an understanding of insect development including the potential number of generations in different seasons plays an important role in pest management decisions.

In his PhD study, Luc Tran calculated the lower and upper development thresholds for TPP. These thresholds

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can be used in calculating Degree Days (DDs) relevant to the development of the insect. DDs are defined as the total amount of heat required between the lower and upper development thresholds in a given day, and are a way of relating insect growth or development to daily temperatures.

Although DDs are usually calculated for a 24-hour time period, it is the number of accumulated DDs from a starting point, called a biofix, that is most useful. The biofix can be a biological event, such as the date at which an insect species flight begins, or a calendar date, such as 1 July. In practice, DDs can provide an estimate of, for example, when the first TPP adults emerge from eggs laid in winter, or when the next generation is potentially due to develop into adults so insecticide applications can be targeted. DDs can be tracked daily when temperature data on a local weather station or on the internet are available.

were calculated for each year from 2006 to 2013 and representative years of ‘cold’, ‘average’ and ‘hot’ DD estimates were selected.

We used DD calculations to estimate the potential number of generations of TPP for the main potato-growing regions in cold, average and hot seasons, before and after potato crop emergence. Average crop emergence and harvest dates for Pukekohe, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, and Canterbury were used. Daily minimum and maximum temperatures were obtained for each of the regions from NIWA Cliflo (www.cliflo.niwa.co.nz).

DDs from 1 July to crop emergence and from crop emergence to harvest

We conclude that because of the pronounced regional differences in the potential number of generations for TPP, pest management advice should be tailored for individual regions. Crop managers can use DDs to estimate when the next generation of adults is developing and target management interventions for TPP more effectively, thereby reducing crop damage, the potential for the development of insecticide resistance, and application costs.

The calculations showed that DD estimates, and therefore potential generation times, were highly variable in the pre- and post-crop emergence periods between regions, and between years within a region (Figure 1). The main effect of higher DDs was that TPP generations were completed earlier, which resulted in a generation within a single season in some regions.

Within a region, the largest differences in DDs were observed in the postcrop emergence period. In the North Island regions, pre-crop emergence temperatures indicated that up to two generations could develop before potato emergence, in contrast to the South Island, where less than one generation occurred during this time.

Vol 68 No 7

Time your insecticide application by calculating Degree Days For New Zealand conditions, DD can be calculated using the DD ‘averaging method’ which uses only a lower development threshold with minimum and maximum temperatures: DD = [(daily maximum temperature + daily minimum temperature)/2] – lower development threshold where DD equals Degree Days (˚DD) per day and the lower development threshold equals 7.1˚C. For example, a day where the high is 23˚C and the low is 5˚C would accumulate 6.9 degree days using 7.1˚C as the baseline: DD = [(23 + 5)/2] – 7.1 = 6.9 If (daily maximum temperature + daily minimum temperature)/2] is less than 7.1, then you use 0.

Vol 68 No 7

Starting from the nominal date of the biofix (in our case 1 July) the DD value for a 24-hour period is added to that of the prior day and this is repeated daily to achieve accumulated DDs. TPP needs to accumulate 358 DDs to develop from egg to adult. This is one generation. The second generation adults emerge after 2 x 358 DDs = 716 DDs, etc.

The following website can be used to download an excel spreadsheet that will do the calculations for you once you have entered the lower development threshold and your temperature data (http://biomet.ucdavis.edu/ DegreeDays/DegDay.htm).

Please note this is a measure of TPP development, not of population size. Also, after having applied an insecticide, it would be a good idea to start DD calculations from the date of insecticide application.

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RESEARCH AND INNOVATION BOARD

Producing lots of wellrounded potatoes (sort of) PhD topic: Selection in the New Zealand potato breeding programme; genetic improvement of potato yield PhD candidate: Mark Paget Where: School of Forestry, Canterbury University Supervisors: Peter Alspach (PFR), Russell Genet (PFR), Luis Apiolaza (University of Canterbury).

Funded by: Potatoes New Zealand and The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited (PFR) Update: June 2013

Developments in both genetics and agronomy have been successful in driving significant potato yield increases over the past century. Records show that potato yields in New Zealand have increased from an average of 11 tonnes per hectare in 1930 from a total production area of 9,400 hectares to an average of 46 tonnes per hectare in 2007 from 10,850 hectares. There are, however, industry concerns that in recent years, potato yield has reached a plateau. The reasons for this are unclear but to some extent, it is not helped by the reluctance of the potato industry to adopt newer more productive cultivars over older established ones that sometimes date back as far as the 19th century. This situation is not unique to New Zealand; it is widely recognized that potato growers worldwide are more conservative when it comes to growing new cultivars, than their wheat and ricegrowing counterparts.

Historic field records are being used to investigate new statistical tools and field trial designs to identify high-yielding varieties (breeding lines) in potato trials for the development of new cultivars (commercially-released varieties). Data from early stage breeding trials are used to identify varieties that should transmit high yield potential to their progeny. Such varieties will have high empirical breeding values (EBVs). Table 1 shows the EBVs of a selection of varieties (many of which are named cultivars) that have been used as parents in the recent past.

Cultivars ‘Summer Delight’ and ‘Moonlight’ have the highest EBVs for yield.

In plant breeding of course, yield is only part of the story.

Selection for yield alone would be relatively easy, but breeders must try to develop cultivars that also have other important characteristics such as good storage ability, consumer acceptability and resistances to diseases such as powdery scab, late blight, potato virus Y and the zebra chip complex. Similar methods can be used to obtain EBVs for all these traits, if the data are available. The relationships that other traits of interest have with yield will, to a large degree, determine the progress in breeding for yield improvement.

Stability of yield as well as yield itself is also an important characteristic of successful cultivars. Growers prefer cultivars that are reliable from season to season – those cultivars that will perform well through good times and not-so-good times. After several rounds of breeders’ selections, the most promising varieties in the PFR programme (those with the most potential to make new cultivars) are tested in several locations: Manawatu, Ohakune, Waikato and Timaru, as well as the main trial sites at Pukekohe and Lincoln. Regional trials aim to represent the major potato-growing regions in New Zealand and allow the evaluation of advanced varieties developed by PFR against established cultivars. Analysis of historic regional trial data has shown that many new PFR varieties offer yield advantages over older, established cultivars. This indicates that the approaches used by the PFR breeding programme to identify varieties with high yield potential and other favourable characteristics are working. Data analysis is also able to identify varieties that are both high yielding and yield stable – that is, those that consistently perform well relative to others over all tested locations (Fig.1).

Information from field trial data is available from testing potato varieties across multiple years and several locations. These data, analysed using modern statistical techniques, can therefore assist breeders in making more informed selection decisions for the development of cultivars for important traits such as yield, yield stability and resistance to diseases.

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Vol 68 No 7

Fig. 1 Yield and yield stability of New Zealand tested potato varieties. Red varieties (cultivars) are from overseas and black varieties have been developed at PFR (cultivars and breeding lines). Varieties closer to 0 (the horizontal grey line) tend to be stable yielders (under PFR field testing conditions)

Table 1 EBVs (empirical breeding values) for marketable yield (in tonnes/hectare, expressed as a deviation from the average EBV of progeny tested in 2000) of some potato varieties historically used as parents in the New Zealand breeding programme

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Parent

EBV

†95%CI

SUMMER DELIGHT

12.1

8.0

MOONLIGHT

11.1

5.9

LONE RANGER

8.5

7.7

KARAKA

5.0

4.2

KENNEBEC

4.6

9.8

L115-1

4.2

5.7

PENTLAND DELL

3.8

16.4

RUA

3.8

2.7

AGRIA

2.3

5.9

ILAM HARDY

0.5

2.7

GLADIATOR

-0.5

5.8

FIANNA

-0.9

5.3

SHEPODY

-1.0

13.4

RANGER RUSSET

-1.3

3.8

ATLANTIC

-2.5

7.9

VTN62-33-3

-3.4

5.2

RED RASCAL

-4.7

10.0

L118-2

-5.7

7.1

DESIREE

-6.3

10.6

MARIS PIPER

-6.4

14.2

NADINE -7.1 7.8 † 95%CI is the confidence interval for the EBV. For example, we are 95% confident that the ‘true’ breeding value of ‘Moonlight’ falls between 11.1 +/- 5.9 t/ha (an interval of 5.2 and 17.0 t/ha). The magnitude of the CI is an indication of the amount of information we have on a particular variety, i.e. from its own performance and that of close relatives, such as progeny or siblings.

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Feature

63

Intensive cropping: dealing with reality Dan Bloomer – LandWISE

A wheeled pea viner harvesting in Hawke’s Bay

We have a group in Hawke’s Bay focused on best management for field cropping. We want to know how far we can push production without degrading the soil, our base resource.

We have drafted a five year cropping programme, based around process crops, but with other crops in the mix.

This is typical in the region where process crops are mixed with onions, squash, some cereals, occasional potatoes and often winter grass.

In our programme we have tried to eliminate animals and pasture, looking instead at maximising vegetable production. Given the different seasons, season lengths and the realities of planting dates that must fit factory schedules, this gets a bit tricky.

Central to our plan are vining peas and green beans, two crops with specialist harvest equipment. Viners are very heavy. The bean harvester weighs in at about 18 tonnes plus 4 tonnes of crop when full. The pea viners are around

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Feature

22 tonnes, plus a couple more of crop when full.

These machines have large wheel or track footprints, so impact a wide path. And pea viners typically travel across the lie of the crop, not up and down rows, so can track anywhere.

How does that fit our plans to adopt controlled traffic!

Gary Cutts of Tasman Harvester Contractors is at the centre of the action. The company currently has nine harvesting machines with a price tag of around $1million each. From December, the machines earn their keep, harvesting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Peas are a very delicate crop and only have a premium harvesting window

of 24 hours. Before that they’re too young, and after that they’re too old.

It’s an exact science to determine when to pick.

For a successful harvest Gary’s team must respond to demand from the factory and deliver on time. Delays that affect factory processing are costly.

The new harvesters, especially those on tracks, can get on to the ground even in very poor weather. But what is their impact on the soil? They are very heavy, they have big feet, and the soil may be weakened by wetness.

Gary contacted Marc Dresser at Landcare Research after hearing him at a LandWISE Conference. Marc is a specialist in soils and mechanical engineering whose knowledge is unrivalled. He worked with Gary on tyre selection and tyre pressures to optimise performance.

Together they reduced harvester tyre pressures from around 30psi to 20psi.

They reversed the direction of jockey bin tyres too. Gary says the difference is immediately noticeable in the field.

Vol 68 No 7

Coupled with a change to tracks, the soil load has been greatly reduced.

Gary still wants to know what the impact on the soil is. Are harvesters doing damage? If they are causing compaction, what is best practice remediation? When should it be done?

How does it impact following crops?

We want to know too. And we want to know what a farmer can do to best prepare their soils before the harvesters arrive. Before the crop is even planted.

We can control traffic in pretty much all operations with the equipment in use now – except for the viners. We’ve

looked at a number of scenarios, which suggest that the 30” row is the factor that sets the standard. Smaller tractors might straddle two rows, bigger machines can straddle four. If equipment is sized accordingly, we can get the trafficked area down to about 17% of the ground. Except for the viners.

Most paddocks only see peas about once in five years, so that leaves 4 years and 11 months of controlled traffic. But in our super-intensive farm, we might see peas almost every year and green beans too. We really do need to know how to manage this aspect of some of our important regional crops.

Diagram of field operations: By carefully matching axles and implement widths, all operations except harvest can be completed on the same few wheel tracks (17% ground compacted). Adding the viners means most of the ground will be driven over (91% compacted).

The grey boxes at the bottom of the diagram show the wheelings after all operations, with and without the viners.

ay

Vol 68 No 7

Feature

65

Report confirms drought worst in nearly 70 years A comparative study on the 2013 drought released today by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) confirms it was one of the most extreme on record for New Zealand and the worst since 1945-46.

The 2013 drought was also one of the most widespread New Zealand has experienced with only the drought of 1972-73 that affected Wairarapa, Tasman, Otago and Southland coming close to its geographical spread.

The report states that the cause of the drought was not El Niño but in fact slow-moving or ‘blocking’ high pressure systems over the Tasman Sea and New Zealand over summer.

Commissioned by MPI and undertaken

by NIWA, the study looked at two sets of data records – NIWA’s gridded Virtual Climate Station Network that goes back to 1972, and longer-term station records that go back to the early 1940s.

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Calculations of a drought index known as potential evapotranspiration deficit (PED) which measures estimates of soil water content showed that 2013 was the worst drought since 1972, and particularly serious for the North Island.

The longer-record station calculations indicate that in some regions it was the most severe drought since 1945-46.

The areas most affected by the 201213 drought were southern Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Central North Island, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, and parts of the north and west of the South Island.

NIWA principal scientist Brett Mullan says the July 2012-May 2013 PED accumulation was the worst since 1972 over one-third of the North Island.

“Previous severe droughts occurred in 1972-73 and 1997-98, both El Niño years. This latest drought was different, being related to persistent high pressure centres over New Zealand during summer – a trend that is increasing according to century-long pressure records.”

MPI Resource Policy Manager, North Island Regions, Stuart Anderson says the report provides a solid picture of the drought’s extent and severity.

“Anecdotally we were told the drought was the worst some farmers had experienced but it is important to have this analysis to understand how

dry the regions were compared to previous droughts.”

Mr Anderson says that although the drought conditions have dissipated with the onset of winter and many farms have started to recover following the good autumn conditions, the economic and social impact of the drought continues to be felt around the country.

“The recent snow makes it harder for farmers to see themselves through the winter and manage feed supply and pastures.

The adverse event declaration of the drought will remain in place until 30 September which will allow rural communities to get through winter and into early spring.”

Declaration of an adverse event means that the Government provides extra funding through Rural Support Trusts to support rural communities, and that some people experiencing hardship may also be eligible for income support through Rural Assistance Payments. Some tax measures can also be accessed through Inland Revenue.

For further details please contact: MPI media phone 029 894 0328.

A copy of the report can be found here: http://www.mpi.govt.nz/Default. aspx?TabId=126&id=1899 Vol 68 No 7

ADVERTORIAL

Grower to Grower Strive for good roots!

AUGUST 2013

By Stefan Vogrincic The last month has caused some issues, some of which I am still battling with. It has been a good season but as usual full of challenges. Problems I faced and ways I have tackled them are as follows: • Warm dark weather in June • High slab ec • Leaf Botrytis and leaf mould • White fly In June outside temperatures were unusually high and the light levels, with all of the bad weather, were below average. I found it hard to keep the 24 hour temperatures down without compromising on my minimum pipe.

I decided I needed minimum pipe temperatures to keep the greenhouse dry and reduce fungus issues.

I possibly did not vent as much as I could have but this may have brought too much cold air onto the top of the plants and therefore more disease in the crop. Running a minimum pipe has kept the property relatively disease free. Fruit size has fallen below spec since my last column was published.

This is very disappointing. As I need

Vol 68 No 7

a minimum number of fruit per truss - I did not truss prune, a mistake with the June light levels! Another contributing factor off high EC in the slab when setting truss 8 to 12 means great tasting fruit but smaller fruit. I have started dropping my slab EC and with some very good light levels and cooler night temperatures in July I have been able to slowly increase my fruit size.

I am extremely happy with the fruit quality and taste. My general plant health gets a pass mark. It is a good time to have a look at your roots and check for problems going into spring. If you identify any issues then a treatment to boost and protect your roots from the stress that the spring may bring could be an option for you, especially if you are increasing stem density. If the roots are struggling in spring, you could be in for a hard slog heading into summer. Don’t over irrigate on dull days!

On my outside walls, where it is slightly colder, there is bigger fruit but there are patches of leaf botrytis and leaf

mould. I have used sulphur on these rows to try and supress the spread and I have had to spray.

My nemesis Mr White Fly is back! I have around five to 10 per plant in my affected areas and I know that unless I do something to get on top of them now they will potentially cause me sleepless nights in September. I have also removed four psyllid plants in the last two weeks so controlling both is highly recommended.

It has been another learning curve this season; the trick is to learn from this for next season to improve. This is why weekly crop recording is so important.

An old tomato growing mentor of mine told me “There are about 100 things to learn about growing tomatoes and you will learn two or three new things every year.” How true.

Please contact Stefan Vogrincic at Gellert Nurseries for any advice from growing to substrate control. e-mail stefan@gellerts.co.nz or phone 0212850070

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67

Wind chill and the July 14 Storm

Just weeks after a huge storm ran across New Zealand the country found itself bracing for another cold, wintry blast on July 14.

Strong winds, heavy rain and snowfall made for a wild start to the school holidays.

This satellite image, taken by the NASA Terra satellite as it passed overhead, nicely shows some of the key players in the unsettled weather.

Most noticeably the curl of cloud to the east of the North Island which

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marks the location of an area of low pressure. As air rushes towards the centre of the low pressure it spins and wraps around, resulting in these telltale cloud formations. With the area of low pressure feeding a stream of showers into Hawkes Bay through the day some parts of the Wairoa district received as much as 130mm of rain in 24 hours.

The open cell cloud formations over the Tasman Sea and off the coast of the South Island give an indication of the feed of cold air traveling northwards over the warmer sea, which resulted in some heavy showers over the Far North of the country.

The air that reached the country on the 14th had its origins over Antarctica which led to a cold day across the country. The top temperature in Dunedin was a mere 6C while the temperature on top of Mid Dome, Southland, remained below -2C throughout the day.

Wind Chill In addition to the cold temperatures the strength of the wind added to the bone-chilling feel of the day.

The stronger the winds the colder it feels, this effect is called wind chill. By calculating this wind chill it is possible to give an apparent, or “feels-like�, temperature.

The strongest gust recorded on the 14th was 170km/h at Brothers Island in the Cook Strait while winds at Wellington airport reached average speeds of 78km/h and gusts of 107km/h.

The wind chill formula used by MetService is the one that was adopted internationally after being agreed to by the Northern American Joint Action Group for Thermal indices in 2001. It is based on results of measurements of the loss of heat from the face of human subjects in various air temperatures and wind speeds in a refrigerated wind tunnel, dressed in winter clothing under various types of activity and with both wet and dry faces.

Vol 68 No 7

Wind Chill “feels Like” table

Where W is the wind chill in degrees Celsius, T is the air temperature in degrees Celsius, and K is the average wind speed in km/h at a standard height of 10 metres above ground.

Note that wind chill is only defined for K with a minimum speed of 5 km/h, and is only designed for air temperature of 10ºC or less.

Wind chill relates how cool your skin feels in the wind by giving an equivalent temperature out of the wind. For example ….when it is 9ºC and you bike to work doing 20 km/h (down-hill) into a 20 to 30km/h headwind (total 50 km/h), you’ll lose as much heat as if you were sitting in a fridge (4ºC, circled).

What is to come?

Our normal late winter pattern is one of disturbed westerly winds (sometimes called the “roaring forties”) covering the whole country.

Within the disturbed westerlies comes an endless and rather chaotic procession of cold fronts, usually with the more active fronts crossing New Zealand at a 5 to 7 day intervals, and the occasional blast of chilling polar air. Any polar blasts

Kilometres per hour

W = 13.12 + 0.6215 x T – 11.37 x K0.16 + 0.3965 x T x K0.16

°C

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

5

9.8

8.6

7.5

6.4

5.2

4.1

2.9

1.8

0.7

-0.5

-1.6

-2.7

-3.9

-5.0

-6.1

10

8.6

7.4

6.2

5.0

3.9

2.7

1.5

0.3

-0.9

-2.1

-3.3

-4.5

-5.7

-6.9

-8.1

15

7.9

6.7

5.4

4.2

3.0

1.7

0.5

-0.7

-2.0

-3.2

-4.4

-5.6

-6.9

-8.1

-9.3

20

7.4

6.1

4.9

3.6

2.3

1.1

-0.2

-1.5

-2.7

-4.0

-5.2

-6.5

-7.8

-9.0

-10.3

25

6.9

5.7

4.4

3.1

1.8

0.5

-0.8

-2.1

-3.3

-4.6

-5.9

-7.2

-8.5

-9.8

-11.1

30

6.6

5.3

4.0

2.7

1.4

0.1

-1.3

-2.6

-3.9

-5.2

-6.5

-7.8

-9.1

-10.4

-11.7

35

6.3

4.9

3.6

2.3

1.0

-0.4

-1.7

-3.0

-4.3

-5.6

-7.0

-8.3

-9.6

-10.9

-12.2

40

6.0

4.6

3.3

2.0

0.6

-0.7

-2.0

-3.4

-4.7

-6.1

-7.4

-8.7

-10.1

-11.4

-12.7

45

5.7

4.4

3.0

1.7

0.3

-1.0

-2.4

-3.7

-5.1

-6.4

-7.8

-9.1

-10.5

-11.8

-13.2

50

5.5

4.1

2.8

1.4

0.0

-1.3

-2.7

-4.1

-5.4

-6.8

-8.1

-9.5

-10.9

-12.2

-13.6

Wind chill relates how cool your skin feels in the wind by giving an equivalent temperature out of the wind. For example ….when it is 9ºC and you bike to work doing 20 km/h (down-hill) into a 20 to 30km/h head-wind (total 50 km/h), you’ll lose as much heat as if you were sitting in a fridge (4ºC, circled).

this winter are likely to bring their chilling winds into a slightly warmerthan-normal Tasman Sea, producing bursts of heavy and thundery showers (with hail) to western areas. These showers are likely to fall as snow on the already snow-cooled mountains.

The variation from normal that could set this winter apart is likely to be a continuation of the June pattern, with Tasman lows that take several days to make their way across the country.

These lows can mix moisture laden winds from the subtropics with cooling winds from the south, resulting sometimes in several days of strong wind and heavy rain.

We still are vulnerable to cold southerly blasts especially when lows deepen off to the southeast of New Zealand. This could be prolonged if any blocking takes place.

With slightly more frequent areas of low pressure in the Tasman Sea, the rainfall over the next few weeks will be above normal across most of the North Island and the north of the South Island. Elsewhere across the country rainfall will be close to normal.

Temperatures over the next few weeks will be above average across the North Island and the north and west of the South Island. Elsewhere they will be close to normal.

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Back to business for T&G

By Rose Mannering

New Turners & Growers chief executive Alastair Hulbert is looking forward to getting on with the business after a troubled 12 months for senior staff at the global fruit company.

Late last year the general manager of exporting arm Enza, Snow Hardy, left the business, then a few short months later his boss Geoff Hipkins also departed. T&G’s deputy chairman Sir John Anderson announced to the stock exchange in mid-March that Geoff Hipkins had left its employment effective immediately. Mr Hipkins was appointed following the purchase of a majority shareholding in T&G by German company, Baywa.

Alastair was appointed to the top job from within the company; he was formerly general manager for international markets and has been part of T&G’s senior management team since 2007. He has been joint acting chief executive since Mr Hipkin’s departure, along with Baywa appointee chief financial officer Harald Hamster-Egerer.

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Despite the Germanic sounding name, Alastair grew up on a Waikato farm which produced asparagus and he attended Massey University in Palmerston North. He has worked in all areas of the horticultural industry since that time and can boast 20 years of industry experience.

Ten years of his working life was spent in the US where he worked for a large family owned business with 80,000 hectares growing, packing and shipping produce. He founded Delica US in 1999, and was one of its founding shareholders. Alastair was appointed general manager of Delica in 2004, and held this position when the business merged with T&G in 2007.

Just this year T&G purchased the remaining 30 percent of shares in Delica to make it a fully owned subsidiary. A review last year of the

activities of the company’s two main brands Delica and Enza concluded both identities should be kept going forward and Alastair supports this view.

Alastair brings significant experience in international fruit marketing to the table, but admits the domestic activities of T&G have been new to him and he has been learning this side of the business.

His mantra will be no more radical changes at T&G, it will be business as usual. Alastair admits T&G lost some experienced operators during its recent restructuring period, but believes others within the organisation have the ability to step up and fill new roles.

On June 28 at the annual meeting, shareholders in T&G reviewed the news that in its first year of operation since the Baywa takeover, the company had recorded an $18-million loss. Alastair says much of this was due to one-off write-downs of biological assets and the company is tracking better than expected this year. The international division of the business is going very Vol 68 No 7

strongly with a hot demand for most apple varieties this season contributing to a considerably improved position to the same time last year. The good growing conditions combined with strong prices achieved in the key offshore markets have increased the profitability of the group and the forecast grower return for ENZA growers. The profit outlook for the full 2013 financial year is for a substantial improvement on 2012, which was affected by large write-downs resulting from orchard revaluations.

Strong performances from Australian companies Delica Australia and Delica Domestic have also contributed to a better outook for the year. Other positive factors include reduced costs

consultancy

on management and the board to maximise that opportunity.

One-off gains from the sale of two assets have been made and interest costs have been lower. Domestic sales have increased by 13.3 per cent in the year to date, and sales to the food service sector have increased by a third as the company targets sales in this area.

Alastair concedes the two varieties are of vital importance to them, but emphasised their entire apple portfolio was important. Envy and Jazz were making great strides worldwide, with Jazz now listed on the 10 top retailers, and Envy in short supply in US and Asian markets.

Industry stalwart and former New Zealand Apple and Pear Board director John Paynter spoke at the annual meeting on the need to make the most of its two “outstanding” apple varieties, Envy and Jazz. John believed previous owners of T&G did not realise the asset they had in these varieties, and the onus was

Continuing research in PVR attracting varieties is considered important for the future, as is growth in export sales to Asian markets.

through restructuring, fees and depreciation.

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Vol 68 No 7

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regular A regular advertorial sectionA of new advertorial section of new products and services.

What’s new | publication publication does not endorse the products or services featured here. products and services. This This does not endorse the products or services featured here.

Lift lock foldable plastic crate first of its kind in New Zealand CHEP New Zealand, the largest provider of RPC’s in the country, introduces the Lift Lock Foldable Plastic Crate, a reusable produce crate (RPC) which will significantly improve efficiency and value for fresh produce suppliers in New Zealand.

CHEP’s global reach has enabled them to introduce the innovative crate design developed by sister company IFCO in Europe – the world’s largest provider of RPC’s.

Available from 2 September 2013, the new Lift Lock crate has a patented, easy open/close lift lock mechanism which allows effortless folding and assembling, without the use of excessive force.

CHEP New Zealand’s Director, Domestic and Export, Paul Dennison, said “Before making the decision to introduce the Lift Lock RPC, CHEP underwent extensive market research and product trials to ensure the best technology was made available to the New Zealand market, in order to provide our customers with the best possible value.”

The state-of-the-art design provides maximum airflow, extending shelf life of products, and reduces transport costs significantly. Other benefits include faster cooling times, reduced chiller costs and greater longevity – with the new crate constructed from the latest polymer technology.

For more information: CHEP Customer Service 0800 652 437 nz.customerservice@chep.com

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Vol 68 No 7

Conference

diary

Events locally and abroad 2013

Sept 4 - 6 Asia Fruit Logistica/Asiafruit Congress Hong Kong www.asiafruitlogistica.com

Sept 9 - 12 5th Quadrennial NZ & Australian Avocado Growers’ Conference Tauranga www.avocadoconference.co.nz

Sept 24 - 26 Cool Logistics Global Conference Rotterdam www.coollogisticsconference.com

Oct 5 - 9 Anuga 2013 Cologne www.anuga.com

Nov 25 - 28 Australasian Plant Pathology Conference Auckland www.apps2013.co.nz

2014

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Feb 5 - 7 Fruit Logistica Berlin www.fruitlogistica.com

Name Address

August 17 - 24 29th International Horticultural Congress Brisbane www.ihc2014.orgv

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