YOUR INDUSTRY
Stu Weston’s motorbike gives him time to clear his head
‘Thunderstruck’ Stu Weston, chief executive officer of post-harvest business Apata, has been part of the kiwifruit industry since 1991. An episode of burnout years ago still informs how he works today. Farmstrong asked him to pass on his insights about how to manage when you’re feeling ‘under the pump.’ How did you get into the industry? I fell into it. I was broke, needed to make the rent and had no warrant for the car, so I picked up a labouring job in a kiwifruit packhouse in South Auckland. I ended up staying for ten years! I’d grown up in urban Auckland, but I absolutely loved the work. Over time, I picked up other roles and eventually moved to the Bay of Plenty where 85 percent of kiwifruit is grown. At the tender age of 33, I was chief executive officer of one of the post-harvest businesses here. Q A
We manage over 300 hectares of orchards and we’re developing another 250 hectares, so we’ve got a lot going on. The main activity is the packing, cool storage and export of kiwifruit.
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The ORCHARDIST : JUNE 2022
hat do you enjoy about the job? W I love working with people and this industry is very collaborative. Every day you run across such a variety. It’s like three industries wrapped up in one – horticulture, manufacturing and warehousing. I love that breadth. Q A
hat are the main pressures at the moment? W Right now, it’s the volatile environment caused by Covid-19. In the last month, hundreds of staff have gone down with Omicron. It’s a guess who’s going to be there every day. Trying to make do with the labour you’ve got is really challenging when you’ve got 200 clients with 15 million trays of fruit to harvest. These are unprecedented challenges that we are facing as an industry. It’s a whole new level of stretch. You’re constantly juggling balls all day, every day. Q A
