YOUR INDUSTRY
Yen Ben lemons at Kainui
Yen Ben lemon harvest underway in Northland
COVER STORY
Wendy Laurenson
Kainui Pack & Cool Last year was a tough one for lemons, so Alan Thompson of Kainui Pack & Cool in Kerikeri is hoping for an improvement this season as harvest gets underway. Kainui now has 26 hectares of Yen Ben lemons with most of these being new plantings under three years old. However Alan and Helen Thompson are not new to lemon growing. They have been involved with horticulture in Kerikeri since the 1980s and have an extensive family business that includes kiwifruit and lemon production, a packhouse and coolstore, an export company, and more recently wine and beer production. “While SunGold kiwifruit is our main production focus across 70 hectares of orchards, Yen Ben lemons have always been a particular passion of mine since commercialising the variety in the 36
The ORCHARDIST : JULY 2022
1990s,” says Alan. They crop most of the year and have a strong Asian export market but they’re tricky to grow. Several Yen Ben lemon crops up here have been pulled out, and in Gisborne and Bay of Plenty, Meyer is the dominant lemon variety and has already hit a glut. So my confidence in Yen Ben persists even in the face of the massive logistical challenges in the last couple of years. Prior to Covid-19, we had increased our plantings more than tenfold from our previous two hectares.” “Then last year was a disaster for our lemon exports because of supply chain issues including lack of containers, and some fruit arrived in bad condition after 30 to 40 days stalled in transit, so returns were awful. We’ve just started this year’s harvest and we’re hoping for fewer logistical obstacles as the world starts to function again.” Alan says the fact that Kainui’s newer plantings are only just
