YOUR INDUSTRY
Sari Masters harvesting satsuma mandarins at Bells Produce
Great mandarin season A great growing season this year has resulted in an early mandarin crop with high yields and quality fruit. Wendy Laurenson Tom Chamberlain, T&G’s regional manager in Northland, says, “Mandarins were in stores at the beginning of April which is two weeks earlier than usual. We had generous rainfall in early summer followed by a warmer drier summer, and these conditions produced juicy, sweet, good sized mandarins, with low acidity levels and great flavour.” Northland is one of New Zealand’s largest mandarin growing regions. This year T&G will harvest over 80,000 crates of satsuma mandarins from the area with additional production from Auckland and Gisborne regions. “Satsuma mandarins have grown in popularity over the past five years to the extent that they’re now the largest volume citrus crop in the country. We have reached a point now where satsuma supply is balanced with demand, which is a great outcome,” says Tom.
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The ORCHARDIST : JUNE 2022
As with other horticulture sectors, labour has been an issue for the mandarin harvest. Tom explains, “Given current seasonal labour shortages, the challenge for us has been having enough hands to harvest the fruit. As an essential business, we’ve worked with many Northland employment agencies to provide opportunities to locals, alongside our seasonal workers, providing them with the required training on safe work practices. We were also grateful to have a group of women from the island of Kiribati here for the blueberry season, who decided to stay to help with our mandarin harvest, as our pickers weren’t able to travel from another Pacific Island to New Zealand.” Seeka is the contract packer for T&G in Northland and Marty Hansen is the Northland regional manager for Seeka. “We’ve had a big volume year that’s gone at a
