R
IO N A EG
OU
L
R
YOUR INDUSTRY
ND
UP
Big crops and big challenges for Bay of Plenty growers The Bay of Plenty’s three major fruit growing industries, kiwifruit, avocado and blueberries, all produced record crops in 2021 but also faced the challenges of labour shortages and the impacts of Covid-19. By Elaine Fisher
Chairman of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI), Mark Mayston, says successfully harvesting and packing fruit during the season, which produced an estimated record 177 million export trays, was a remarkable effort and a tribute to all involved given the challenges of labour and Covid-19. A higher than usual rate of absenteeism was identified in the workplace during the 2021 harvest and was a major concern. Mark says NZKGI has been carrying out surveys to understand the workforce, what hours people want to work and how the industry can meet their needs. “It seems that wage rates have increased to the point where some people are only working three-quarters of the time they used to, to earn the money they need. It was thought that by paying more, productivity would increase, but that’s not true in all cases.
NZKGI has been carrying out surveys to understand the workforce, what hours people want to work and how the industry can meet their needs “NZKGI spends a lot of time and money on employment. The $100,000 labour attraction campaign we run annually is our biggest spend and the programme starts again shortly to encourage New Zealanders to come and work for us.” The industry is fortunate that Zespri charters its own ships, but even so, some vessels have experienced lengthy delays waiting to berth and discharge fruit.
22
The ORCHARDIST : DECEMBER 2021
“So far there have been few fruit quality issues in the markets which is a credit to the work of the post-harvest sector,” says Mark. A highlight of 2021 for NZKGI was the strong support from growers for its levy to increase from 1 cent a tray to 1.1 cents, which Mark says is a vote of confidence that the organisation is working hard for growers, including continually monitoring the performance of Zespri. BerryCo general manager, Alice Moore, says the 2021 harvest of blueberries was up 70% by mid-November. About 80ha of blueberry crops are grown by 30 growers in the Bay of Plenty, the far North and Motueka. Harvest, which ends just after Christmas, started early this season. “An extended period of cloudy weather, high humidity and mild night temperatures, quickly followed by hot weather, amplified the movement of the berries into harvest,” Alice says. “More fruit coming through at the same time created challenges as picking berries is very labour intensive.” BerryCo’s quality standards require fruit to be coolstored within 20 to 30 minutes of being picked, which means growers need a facility on their orchard and enough staff to meet that timeframe. Export fruit is sent by airfreight to Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore and other smaller markets in Malaysia and Indonesia.
...the 2021 harvest of blueberries was up 70% by midNovember
