YOUR LEVY AT WORK
GENDER NO BARRIER TO SUCCESS IN HORTICULTURAL CAREER Words by Elaine Fisher
Kerri Nakajima – operations manager for CentralPac in Cromwell
When Kerri Nakajima graduated from the University of Canterbury, she expected her BA majoring in Russian language and literature would lead to a role in the New Zealand diplomatic service. However, today Kerri is operations manager for CentralPac in Cromwell – the Central Otago facility which packs cherries for more than 20 orchards – and she’s loving it. “It’s such a varied job with lots of challenges and every day is different,” says Kerri who is also a member of Women in Horticulture’s governance group. Kerri, who grew up in Invercargill, doesn’t come from a horticultural background. For five years after leaving university she was an executive assistant and interpreter for Japanese-owned company Bridgestone NZ, which involved some international travel. In 2005, she and her husband Hiroki moved to Central Otago, and Kerri became office manager and then packhouse manager at Central Cherries in Cromwell.
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NZGROWER : FEBRUARY 2021
For 10 years she worked for Central Cherries before joining CentralPac as packhouse manager, then production assistant, and now she is operations manager. She and Hiroki live in the Catlins where they have a business, and during the cherry harvest season Kerri bases herself two-and-a-half hours away in Cromwell. “The rest of the time I can do most of my work from home.”
The biggest attribute required I think is flexibility and willingness to learn on the job Cherries are the only fruit CentralPac packs and the highvalue, delicate fruit require careful handling from picking to packing. While many primary industries were struggling to find sufficient staff due to New Zealand’s border closures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kerri says CentralPac didn’t have that problem in late 2020.
