YOUR INDUSTRY
KIWI CONSUMERS KEEP SALAD BUSINESS GOING Words by Elaine Fisher
Rosita Wynne, who has worked for Mr Salad for 10 years, packs edible flowers for customers
How much lettuce did overseas visitors eat when, before Covid-19, they dined in New Zealand restaurants and cafés? Of course no one knows for sure, but Wayne Revell (aka Mr Salad of Katikati) thinks it may be less than is believed, because since tourists stopped arriving, orders for his lettuce have stayed on a par with pre-Covid years. “I think I underestimated the impact of Kiwis eating out in New Zealand and those returning home, on the hospitality sector and our business.” However, his business Mr Salad, at Ongare Point just north of Katikati, didn’t escape unscathed from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. “During lockdown in March last year the dairy farmer up the road fed 150,000 of our red lettuce to his dairy cows.”
“Although I knew nothing about how to grow hydroponic lettuce, the practicalities aren’t too dissimilar to dairy farming, and I’d learn by my mistakes.” The previous owners established the hydroponics operation in 1992 on land they had converted from a kiwifruit orchard, at a time when that industry was experiencing a downturn. The operation involved not only growing and harvesting fancy lettuce, but also taking orders from restaurants and cafés and delivering to them each day.
Mr Salad grows eight different varieties of lettuce including butter, red and green frilled, red and green oak, and cos lettuce
Philosophical about the loss, Wayne says one of the beauties of growing hydroponic lettuce is that if plants are lost for whatever reason, including disease or lack of markets, it’s possible to have another crop ready for market within six weeks.
That’s how Wayne ran the operation too, receiving orders from cafés and restaurants often late at night, filling them out the next morning and then doing deliveries too.
In fact, growing lettuce is not dissimilar to growing grass, says the former Waikato dairy farmer who knew nothing about vegetable growing or hydroponics when he bought the Mr Salad business 13 years ago.
In 2018 negotiations began with Bidfood, through its Tauranga manager Ken Buckthought, for Mr Salad to become a grower for Bidfood, which in turn would handle all the orders.
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NZGROWER : MAY 2021
