Hort News August 2022

HORTNEWS AUGUST 2022, ISSUE 24

WWW.HORTNEWS.CO.NZ

Diamonds in the rough?

– Page 6

ISSN 2624-3490 (print) ISSN 2624-3504 (online)

Labour snags hit quality

Sudesh Kissun sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

LABOUR SHORTAGES on orchards are beginning to impact the quality of New Zealand products in global markets.

Speaking at the recent NZ Primary Industries Conference in Auckland, Zespri chief executive Daniel Mathieson says the lack of people across the supply chain has seen quality standards slip.

“This is a real serious issue,” he told a panel discussion on labour challenges

facing the farming sector.

“As agribusiness producers, we make our money by being the best in the world, with the best quality in the world,” Mathieson says. “I think over the last two years, with the lack of people across the supply chain, we have seen our quality standards start to slip.”

Mathieson believes this is starting to erode customer goodwill and value we can get in the marketplace.

The conference heard from Hort NZ that this season there would be

a shortfall of 6,000 workers under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme. While labour shortages remain a major challenge on farms, Mathieson believes it provides the agribusiness sector opportunities in two areas: helping temporary workers transition into full-time jobs; and getting the balance right between NZ workers and those coming into the country to work under RSE and other schemes.

He says the days of temporary workers are gone.

“It’s probably not going to return,

and we must face up to reality and start restructuring our businesses to take in more people on a permanent basis.”

He says that’s the “big discussion” Zespri is having with Kiwifruit growers.

“We don’t want people just turning up for a few months and then going somewhere else. We have to be sure they are actually coming, developing and learning new skills and then they stay and progress with the industry and company.”

Mathieson says farmers and growers must first focus on NZ workers.

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However, he points out that they won’t be enough.

“We have enormous growth ahead of us in all our businesses,” he says.

“NZ is a great country to supply the world but will need people to need to do that. We need to get a balance, between demonstrating a good healthy growth for the NZ workforce sector while getting a good balance of people coming into the country.

“We haven’t got the balance right and the time has come now to reset and get that balance right.”

PHOTO: DAVID BAIRD PHOTOGRAPHY.

A CANTERBURY vegetable growing company recognised for its environmental initiatives has gone a big step further with the installation of one of the South Island’s bigger solar units to power its packing and storage facilities. Oakley’s Premium Fresh Vegetables Ltd has put in 564 solar panels at its Southbridge base and these are expected to provide 40% of the company’s annual energy demands. Pictured in a broccoli field on the company’s Southbridge site is managing director Robin Oakley.

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AUGUST 2022

$80 million annual benefit for NZ hort from EU FTA Peter Burke peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

THE NZ horticulture sector stands to save nearly $80 million a year as a result of the recently negotiated Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU).

According to the latest statistics from MPI, the EU is the largest overall market for NZ horticulture exports at just over $1 billion. The EU is our biggest market for kiwifruit and the second largest for apples (China is the largest importer of NZ apples).

Horticultural Export Authority (HEA) chief executive Simon Hegarty, whose role is to promote NZ horticultural exports and advocate for the freeing up of market access, says the FTA is fantastic news for the sector.

Hegarty told Hort

Horticultural Export Authority chief executive Simon Hegarty says the EU FTA is fantastic news for the NZ hort sector.

SWEET DEAL MEANWHILE, HEGARTY told Hort News that at a time of massive freight disruptions, the deal has become even sweeter for NZ. This is because the tariffs are set on what is called CIF – cost of the product, plus insurance and freight.

With freight rates skyrocketing, the cost of the tariffs would go up accordingly.

However, under the EU FTA this extra cost won’t come into play

– hence the near $80 million annual saving.

Hegarty adds that the geopolitical situation is adding to the challenges facing horticultural exporters.

“With perishable products we can’t afford to have containers sitting on wharves without power supplies or on vessels going to the wrong destinations,” he explains.

“It’s high risk and it’s been a really hugely difficult two years

with all the disruption with freight and shipping.”

However, Hegarty says the prospects for the products themselves are excellent so once things returns to some sort of normality he is very positive about the future prospects.

Hegarty believes it was good to get the deal signed now, rather than stalling the negotiations and risking being sent to the back of the queue.

News that back in 2018, at the start of the FTA negotiations, the HEA made detailed submissions to NZ’s trade negotiators setting out the huge cost to the sector of EU tariffs.

“Every two years the HEA produces a large report on barriers to our export trade,” he explains.

“The EU was clearly the number one destination for us and the biggest overall component of our annual tariff costs.”

Hegarty says the EU

FTA will see the removal of approximately 60% of the sector’s annual tariff costs globally, making it an important deal for NZ hort sector.

He says once the FTA is approved, it will immediately see the tariffs on NZ horticulture’s big ticket exports to the EU – such as kiwifruit, onions and apples – removed, meaning savings for those sectors of $37m, $6.5m and $1.3m, respectively.

It will also see tariffs on

other products – such as frozen boysenberries, apricots, cherries, buttercup and squash removed.

“Well done to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade whose combined efforts and leadership resulted in this welcome agreement, from what has been a complex negotiation under testing conditions.”

Hegarty concedes that gaining concessions for horticultural products in the FTA negotiations was much easier than for the livestock sector.

He says a lot of fruit is grown in European countries such as Spain, France and Italy. However, the EU also imports a lot of fruit in the off season – particularly from southern hemisphere countries such as NZ, South Africa, Chile and Peru.

“This is to keep supplies of healthy food products on supermarket shelves through the full 12 months of the year,” he adds.

“Health and wellbeing is a big factor that drives peoples’ choices and horticulture is very prominent in the health and wellbeing side of consumers’ decisions,” Hegarty explains.

“So, that’s why horticulture products weren’t seen as sensitive so much, relative to other food products.”

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HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Export returns mask profitability TEARS OF JOY FOR EU DEAL

Peter Burke peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

ONION EXPORT returns may look good for NZ, but the actual earnings for growers is far from great.

Onions New Zealand chief executive James Kuperus says it’s been an incredibly difficult year for the sector. He says there’s going to be a drop in revenue for growers due to increases in inputs including fertiliser, chemicals and labour. He says, on top of this, there have been massive shipping problems.

“All these factors have combined to reduce profitability right across the primary sector,” Kuperus told Hort News.

He adds that there have been compounding issues with getting product out of the South Island to market, due to a lack of ships and containers down there. Kupe-

Onions New Zealand chief executive James Kuperus.

rus says the weather has caused problems with a drought in Pukekohe, one of the main onion growing areas in the country, which reduced yields; the same happened in Hawkes Bay. However, Kuperus says it was the heavy rain that

caused problems in the Manawatū and Horowhenua regions.

“The result is that overall onion production is down by about 20%, which is very high.

“But at the same time, it’s not a bad year to be down on production with

the shipping issues,” he explains. We probably wouldn’t have been able to ship product if we had more and the end result is a difficult season, but it could have been worse.”

Just on 80% of the onions grown in NZ are exported, with the main

KUPERUS SAYS the future prospects are looking quite good with tariffs coming off in the UK and the slightly longer prospects of tariffs coming off in the EU as a result of the recent FTA. He told Hort News that in the last three years NZ has exported on average $75m worth of onions a year to the EU. Kuperus says the tariffs on these exports range from between $6.5m to $7m a year.

“For our industry that is quite a substantial saving.”

Kuperus says it likely to be 2024 before the EU FTA officially takes effect. He says the onion sector is very grateful for the excellent work done by the NZ trade negotiators.

market being continental Europe – with Indonesia, Japan and Malaysia also taking some product.

Kuperus says, in the past season, getting product to Europe was very difficult due to the shipping disruptions.

“Historically it would take about six weeks to get product to Europe, but in the past year it could have taken up to ten weeks,” he says.

“With Europe it’s a counter seasonal supply so we have a very limited

window to get product in, so the net result was we were slightly back on sales to Europe but fairly consistent for the rest of the markets.”

On the domestic market, he says it was pretty much business as usual and although there were some price fluctuations, the returns to growers were about normal.

Looking to next season, Kuperus says planting has started in Pukekohe and planting preparation was good despite some quite heavy rainfalls. He says growers are still going to have to contend with increasing input costs and says they will have to factor that into their businesses.

Kuperus says with rising fertiliser prices, growers will have to optimise its use, but adds if they cut back too much they run the risk of reduced yields and quality.

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Enablement not restrictions!

Peter Burke peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

“I WANT to give growers certainty and confidence that there is a future for the industry.”

That’s the goal in the coming season for Horticulture NZ chair Barry O’Neil, who says the past two years – especially the last one – have been extremely difficult and taken their toll on all those associated with the sector. O’Neil says it’s been a nightmare with labour shortages, rising input costs and huge shipping disruptions.

He says there’s also been a problem getting government policy issues presented in a way that those in the sector can see that they have got a future. O’Neil claims that in the present environment, policy is all about

Hort NZ chair Barry O’Neil believes present policy is all about restricting and limiting the sector rather than being enabling it.

restricting and limiting rather than being enabling.

“I would certainly hope that over the course of the next 12 months we

can progress those sort of discussions with the Government,” he told Hort News. “After all, consumers overseas still want healthy natural products

and the demand for our products is still fantastic.”

O’Neil says the past season has been a mixed one right across the hort sector and even mixed

within various fruit crops.

He says some sectors like his own kiwifruit have managed to survive and get their full crops picked, packed and exported.

However, he notes that other sectors have been less fortunate, such as the apple industry, which wasn’t able to harvest all the fruit on the trees.

“We have had to massor strip-pick fruit in one go, whereas we’d normally be picking up to three or four times to pick fruit at the optimum period for quality and ripeness etc,” he explains.

“In a lot of cases, we have had to strip pick and then use the grading technology to differentiate on the quality of the fruit so the consumer is still getting high quality fruit.”

However, O’Neil says the grower is not getting as much past at that top quality end and, as a result, getting returns for an average quality rather than 100% or 80% top quality. He says the export companies worked

hard to ensure that only top quality fruit has been exported, but it’s possible that there’ll less of this quality fruit sent overseas than is normally the case.

O’Neil says the kiwifruit crop is down by about 20 million trays on what was previously forecast. He says climate was one factor and notes that some growers deliberately laid down fewer canes to produce a lower crop because they were fearful there wouldn’t be the labour to pick it.

He says other crops – such as avocados – have been hit hard by a range of problems and cherry growers struggled to get fruit in premium condition to their number one market of China because of the high cost and lack of airfreight space. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

LABOUR ISSUES IMPACTING THE HORT SECTOR LABOUR SHORTAGES are at the heart of the problems for the horticultural sector.

Hort NZ chair Barry O’Neil notes that while the Government has supported a slight increase in migrant workers, from 14,400 to 16,000, he says this needs to be lifted to well above 20,000.

O’Neil says the RSE scheme is a good programme for both NZ and the Pacifica and rejects claims about poor wages paid to RSE workers.

“The payments for RSE workers are very good. I don’t accept any notion that we as a sector are dependent on low cost migrant labour,” he told Hort News. “It’s not low cost, it’s higher cost than a number of sectors are paying in NZ.” But the labour shortages that have dogged the industry during the pandemic continue to throw up new problems. O’Neil says this has meant that growers are, in some cases, competing with each other for staff and that is putting up the price of labour.

“Some sectors can afford to pay more and they are doing so because they need the labour,” he explains.

“Other sectors can’t afford to do that. So, there is a dynamic playing out there that I don’t think is healthy or favourable to the sector, longer term.

“We are trying to get automation in as fast as we can and it’s already well advanced into the post-harvest side, but it’s much harder to introduce it at the orchard level,” he says.

One option to make picking easier in orchards, O’Neil believes, is to use platforms, which removes the need for people climb up and down ladders

With our borders opening up Hort NZ would like to see more backpackers coming into NZ to help with harvest.

all day. These tend to suit less agile people who are very good pickers.

O’Neil adds that with the borders opening up, he’d like to see more backpackers coming into NZ. In the past, they have been a major labour source for the horticulture sector.

Shipping is another issue that continues to haunt the hort sector. O’Neil

says for the kiwifruit industry, which is vertically integrated from orchard to consumer and with their own supply chain, it is much easier. He says this sector has the critical mass to lease its own refrigerated ships and has much greater control over shipping schedules.

“But shipping caused all sorts of

tensions and challenges in the apple industry,” he says. “Its cool storage situation became very acute because cool stores were full and ships that would normally be taking containers out on a daily basis wasn’t happening.

So, various sectors got challenged in different ways.”

O’Neil says growers in the South

Island tended to have more problems with shipping than those nearer the larger ports in the North Island, but there were different challenges for everyone.

“Personally, I am optimistic about the season coming up and while we’re not out of the tunnel we can see some bright lights.” – Peter Burke

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HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Diamonds in the rough?

Jessica Marshall jessica@ruralnews.co.nz

COULD PREVIOUSLY unproductive land be used to produce truffles?

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) seems to think so. It’s providing more than $155,000 in Government funding from MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund to Ohiwa Black Diamond Truffles, a Bay of Plenty-based truffle growing company.

Ohiwa-based couple Matiu Hudson and Annette Munday run the business and will use the funding to share their knowledge with interested growers so New Zealand can grow enough truffles for a robust export industry.

MPI director of investment programmes Steve Penno told Hort News the programme with Ohiwa Black Diamond Truffles meets the SFF Futures fund’s aims of supporting innovation in the food and fibre sector to grow productivity, profitability, sustainability, and jobs.

“It aims to boost capability within the truffle sector, to grow both productivity and profitability,” Penno says.

He adds that as well as growing truffles, the programme aims to develop new

food products applying the health benefits of the truffle, with traditional Maori Rongoa (medicinal use of plants) for the hospitality sector.

“Workshops will be held for Māori landowners to grow and sell their own truffles, and the project will also explore export markets.”

This, Penno claims, will grow the industry and therefore create jobs.

Ohiwa-Black Diamond Truffles owner Annette Munday says they have already received orders for approximately 10,000 inoculated truffle seedlings and have helped one family in Kawhia set up a truffiere (truffle farm).

“We’d like to see Māori land trusts and farmers around New Zealand growing truffles on unproductive land,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to make money out of land with poor soil and could offer a side-line income for farmers if they planted seedlings beside trees used for riparian planting, for example.”

Truffles can fetch between $2,500 and $3,500 per kilogram, and set-up costs per hectare for growing truffles range between $35,000 and $70,000.

Munday says each tree is capable of yielding 200 grams to one kilogram in well managed plantations.

Truffles can fetch between $2,500 and $3,500 per kilogram.

HORTNEWS Introducing Hort News, a national publication serving the needs of our booming horticulture sector.

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HORTNEWS NOVEMB ER 2021 , ISSUE

Bumper cherry cro p predicted – Page 7

Sweet res ult for ho rt!

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WWW.HO RTNEWS .CO.NZ

ISSN 2624ISSN 2624- 3490 (print) 3504 (onlin e)

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GETTING READY!

MANGAW EKA ASP ARAGUS Sam Rain manager ey overse es an 80 asparagus hectare in the cen tral North When Hor Island. t News visi ted the pro in late Sep perty tember, Rainey and were in the his staff final stag es of pre for the har paring vest. The packhouse being set was up and at the sam first spe e time the ars of asp aragus wer to appear e starting . While the total size property of the is 80 hec tares, the just 65 hec y will pick tares this season – equates which to up to 250 tonnes.

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HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Heart-breaking season as fruit left behind to rot David Anderson

“HEART-BREAKING” is how growers are describing the waste of fruit left unpicked to rot due to lack of labour – made worse by Covid.

Low worker numbers have seen harvesting down 15 % with unpicked fruit rotting on the trees or on the ground.

Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers Association Graeme Hodges says it’s the worst season he’s seen in years.

“The labour shortage has certainly been exacerbated by the prevalence of Covid amongst the teams.”

Hodges says labour shortages have affected all areas from pickers through to truck drivers.

“I probably haven’t

seen some of the private growers look so glum as they did in the season just gone.

“It’s been on the back of three very tough years, but you know that old Kiwi adage, we just sort of grin and bear it, but this year we can’t hide the results – they’re out there hanging on the tree,” he adds.

“We didn’t necessarily have enough people and, sadly, Covid’s affected us all and I guess those of us who were lucky enough to get the fruit off the trees, it’s been really hard post-harvest as well because we’re short of truck drivers. We’re short of trucks,” Hodges explains.

“It’s been an impact on the entire nation, just ours is a little bit more

visible now that we’ve got into winter and our leaves are on the ground.”

He says it’s heart-

breaking for those growers who had to make tough decisions to leave the fruit to rot because

they didn’t have enough staff to get to everything.

“We work for 364 days just to have that one shot

to harvest that fruit, and it’s heart-breaking, not just for us as growers, but for our teams.”

Hodges has nothing but praise for the workers and teams in orchards around the country who “put in a whole heap of mahi” to get the fruit to that stage.

“For us to have to make decisions to leave that behind because we simply can’t get to it is distressing for us.”

Hodges says the solution to the problem was employing more staff but a lack of housing means that isn’t possible.

“We can jump up and down and tell everyone to come to Hawke’s Bay, Nelson or Central Otago with our main applegrowing regions, but if the places aren’t there to accommodate them, what do we do?” @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

First hort sector sustainability loan T&G GLOBAL says it has signed the New Zealand horticulture sector’s first sustainability-linked loan, borrowing $180 million.

The three-year loan commits T&G to a science-based, greenhouse gas emissions reduction target that aligns with limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.

The loan also requires T&G to undertake a comprehensive climate risk adaptation plan to enable the company to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate and create permanent job opportunities and career

pathways to help boost regional development.

T&G chief executive Gareth Edgecombe says the loan is a critical and strategic move towards long-term sustainability.

“We’re committed to making positive changes and transitioning to a healthier and more sustainable future,” says Edgecombe.

“Our Sustainability-Linked Loan and its ambitious targets demonstrates our commitment to embracing sustainable practices and meeting global consumer needs. This includes helping New Zealand transition to a

low-carbon economy by decarbonising our business and adapting to a changing climate, as well as building thriving local communities.”

Edgecombe claims this loan will ensure the company keeps sustainability at the forefront of its business.

The loan follows on from T&G achieving its first climate objective of sourcing 100% of electricity from renewable sources. This was achieved by implementing energy efficiencies and switching to renewable electricity certificates to cover domestic and international electricity consumption per year.

Doug Bygrave, T&G chief financial officer, says the loan is an important milestone in the company’s 125-year history.

“T&G has a strong history of taking care of an environment we significantly rely on and looking after our people.

“We know the creation of permanent roles and the fostering of careers not only benefits individuals and families, but the benefits flow deep into local communities,” he says.

“By working with our principal banks Rabobank and BNZ as Joint Sustainability Co-ordinators, (as well

as participation from HSBC and Westpac), we’ve structured a loan that sets clear and meaningful targets, which upon delivery, will deliver improved cost of capital and further embed sustainability within T&G.” Bygrave says the loan incentivises the company to invest in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities. He adds that a key focus is the decarbonisation of its transport fleet and glasshouses, as well as electricity efficiency.

“It’s a big challenge, and our targets in the loan reflect our ambition to limit our impact and adapt.”

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HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Canty vege grower harnesses solar to power coolstores Nigel Malthus

A CANTERBURY vegetable growing company already well-recognised for its environmental initiatives has gone a big step further with a large solar power installation to power its packing and storage facilities.

Oakley’s Premium Fresh Vegetables Ltd has put in 564 solar panels at its Southbridge base. One of the South Island’s largest solar installations, it is expected to provide 40% of the company’s annual energy demands.

Robin Oakley, manager of the five-generation family business, says the biggest users of electricity are the coolstores that allow them to store and supply potatoes yearround, and potato grading, washing and packing

lines. He says the installation is expected to provide about $60,000 worth of electricity a year.

“The power bill for last month was about five grand down on the same time last year.”

Supplied by CPS Solar, the installation feeds excess power back to the grid and can be monitored by a smartphone app. It has now been operating for a couple of months.

“At any given time I can see what it’s generating and I can see what it’s done so far for the day,” he says.

“There’s a lot of variance based on the sunshine so you’ve got to take the averages, but for what I can tell, it’s doing everything it’s supposed to be doing thus far, but of course we’re almost at the shortest day, so this is at

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its lowest.”

Oakley says a consideration for anyone putting in solar is not to put in too much capacity, because the returns for sending excess electricity back to the grid are not enough to justify the extra capital cost.

However, he is now investigating putting in further panels in conjunction with batteries to store the excess generated

on the sunniest days. He says there could soon be a supply of second-hand electric vehicle batteries that no longer charge and discharge quickly enough for EV use but would still be good enough for his purposes.

The company won three Ballance Farm Environment Awards in 2020 (second only to the overall regional winner) for excellence in soil manage-

ment, scientific monitoring and innovation. They have been early adopters of technologies such as farm-wide moisture probes to forecast irrigation requirements, and extensive soil and plant nutrient testing to calibrate fertiliser applications for maximum quality and yield.

Oakley says it’s all part of a common-sense approach to putting in

technology that stacks up on the commercial returns, like upgrading lighting to LEDs, with sensors to turn lights off automatically when not needed.

Out in the fields they are also implementing strip-tilling with cultivators that only work narrow strips where the vegetable rows will be planted.

Oakley says that requires

less horsepower, while minimising soil disturbance and potential loss of organic matter and soil structure.

“So it’s a practice that builds your soil structure, it gives you more water and nutrient holding capacity. And it will also tie in with getting more utilisation out of our fertiliser, because we will actually band it rather than broadcast it.”

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HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Eye out for stink bugs!

A WINTER campaign is underway to help raise awareness of the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB).

BMSB – a particularly unwanted pest – poses a major threat to New Zealand’s horticulture industry. “It has the potential to cost the country nearly $4 billion if it established here,” says Biosecurity New Zealand’s manager of readiness, Dr Cath Duthie.

“There is always the chance the unwanted pest could arrive in parcels and with other imported items. We very much want the public to help us with our surveillance efforts.”

Biosecurity NZ’s BMSB winter campaign focuses on showing people how to correctly identify the pest and report it. While it looks like some other bug species, BMSB has elements that make it

WHAT’S THE THREAT TO NZ?

The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) poses a major threat to NZ’s horticulture industry.

identifiable – including white stripes or banding on its antennae and abdomen. The bug is about the same size as a 10 cent coin.

The winter campaign follows the spring-summer campaign of 2021/22, which saw stink bug ads appear on people’s phone and computer screens.

Duthie says Biosecurity New Zealand is asking anyone who thinks

9

dence of any established BMSB population in New Zealand.

There were 61 live bugs intercepted in New Zealand during the 2021/22 season – mostly associated with imported cargo.

Duthie says the number of live interceptions has dropped considerably over the last three years.

“This is largely due to the introduction of

they’ve found BMSB to catch it, snap it (take a photo), and report it.

“Winter is the time when BMSB is most likely to be found in enclosed spaces and indoors. This can cause problems for homeowners. As summer comes, any bugs are more likely to be found outdoors, for example in gardens.”

Biosecurity NZ says there is currently no evi-

THE BROWN marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is an agricultural, horticultural, and social pest.

It’s native to Asia and has spread throughout North America and Europe. The bug isn’t established in New Zealand, but the sneaky pest hitchhikes on passengers and imported goods. However, they have been caught at our border many times.

BMSB feeds on more than 300 plant species. If established in New Zealand it could decimate fruit and vegetable industries.

During autumn and winter,

import rules that make it harder for BMSB to enter New Zealand on risky cargo such as vehicles, machinery and parts from countries with established stink bug populations. Such cargo must be treated before arriving in New Zealand during the BMSB season.”

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thousands of bugs can enter houses to shelter from the cold.

When they’re disturbed they release a foul-smelling liquid, which can make the house hard to live in.

Adult BMSB are a brown ‘shield’ shape and about the size of a 10 cent coin.

The easiest way to identify them is from the white bands on their antennae and alternating black and white markings on the abdomen.

Its underside is a white/tan colour.

Stink bug eggs are light green, shaped like barrels, and are usually in clusters of 20 to 30.

Biosecurity New Zealand further tightened border controls recently – including introducing targeted alerts on additional goods associated with BMSB detections.

Consignments covered by the alerts underwent full inspection to rule out the presence of live bugs.

“The fact we have no established BMSB populations suggests that the current biosecurity approach is working well,” Duthie adds. “However, the risk of an incursion is never zero, which is why we all must play our part in keeping an eye out.”

10

HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Little Govt understanding of Hort Nadine Tunley

ONE FRUSTRATION voiced more than others was how little the Government understands our industry.

While I know I have written about this situation in the past, I feel it is worthwhile writing about it again because, as the saying goes, “Your perception may not be my reality”.

It is hard to get meetings with Ministers and their officials. However, those meetings are of critical importance to improving their understanding. We were recently criticised during one meeting for putting something too simply. However, our simple explanation led to the Minister realising that what was being proposed was potentially flawed and could result in unintended outcomes. As a result, the

Minister decided to take action with ment begins to consider the specific his colleagues, which we hope will needs of those within our sector as part of their decision result in a better outmaking. come for our industry The Ministry for and the wider NZ comPrimary Industries munity.

(MPI) is standing up a As an industry, we new farm advisory seralways offer immersion vice but is yet to clarexperiences for officials ify what that group to grow and build on will look like and how their knowledge base. it will deliver. At the We are a complex and variable sector with 20 Hort NZ chief executive same time, another Nadine Tunley. part of the Government product groups. We are definitely not all the same. Growing has provided our sector with funding asparagus, for example, is quite differ- to stand up an advisory service too. ent to growing kiwifruit. By exposing Groups such as Dairy NZ and Beef + officials to the diverse and complex Lamb also offer advisory services.

To make this a positive rather than nature of our industry we hope to build a more understanding and col- negative addition, it will be important laborative relationship where govern- that industry and MPI work collabor-

atively to plan for and manage these advisory services.

We know our industry is a challenge to understand because of its diversity.

There has been talk about automation and robotics, and how the Government believes they are going to solve our industry’s labour issues.

Somehow, our industry is ‘bad’ because automation and robotics are not already solving those issues.

Put simply, the current situation is this – at least in the apple industry: Self-propelled platforms that go up and down and espaliering the trees to grow in two dimensions increases the number of people who can do apple picking work but it does not increase productivity, as the Government seems to believe.

The optical technology that is needed for a robot to be able to pick an apple is still a long way off being fully developed let alone reaching commercialisation. What’s more, given current uncertainties with some growers removing apple trees and not replacing them, very few growers would be in a position to make the significant financial investment required, even if the technology was available and had been commercialised.

‘Dear Government. Please come and visit and look, listen and learn.

That way you will get the productive food and fibre sector that you are after and need to deliver on New Zealand’s environmental commitments and economic recovery.’

• Nadine Tunley is chief executive of Hort NZ.

Sweet success for honey producers NEW ZEALAND’S best honey producers were named at the recent Apiculture New Zealand National Honey Competition, as part of the industry’s recent annual conference in Christchurch. The National Honey Competition featured products across a range of honey categories from creamed honey to chunky honey and cut honeycomb.

The 2022 Supreme Award winner was Timaru-based Jarved Allan of The Mānuka Collective, who took away the award for the second year in a row. “There was consistently high quality across the board,” according to head judge Maureen Conquer.

She said the judges were impressed with the quality of honey, that is improving every year, and it was very difficult to choose the winners. Conquer added that the honeydew honeys, in

The National Honey Competition featured products across a range of honey categories.

particular, were of much higher quality this year.

All entries were blind tasted, and an international scale of points was used to determine the

winners across 12 main categories. For the first time, the honey tasting was opened up to conference attendees and a People’s Choice award given.

This section boasted an interesting range of flavours including thyme, pumpkin and lavenderinfused honeys. Hawkes Bay beekeeper Robyn

Gichard’s liquid honey proved to be the favourite in this category.

The conference also was an opportunity to celebrate other successes

within the industry, with awards presented to those making outstanding achievements in apiculture science, innovation, sustainability and pho-

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tography.

Dr Linda NewstromLloyd (and the Trees for Bees team) was awarded the Peter Molan trophy for exceptional contribution to apiculture science for their work on strategic plantations of bee feed that will maximise bee health and survival.

Canterbury-based family-owned business Heathstock Apiaries received the ApiNZ Sustainability Best Practice Award for their organic and sustainable beekeeping practices with an emphasis on quality hive management over quantity of hives. The Roy Paterson award for innovation went to another sustainable beekeeping company, Bees Kneez, for their hive nappy.

The ‘Unsung Hero Award’ went to Nick Wallingford for voluntarily digitising 600 publications (16,000) pages of the NZ Beekeeper Journal dating from 1914 to 2016.

HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Avocado growers smashed in past year, but are bouncing back Pam Tipa

A VERY tough year for avocado growers and the wider industry has emphasised the need to be agile, says NZ Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular.

But work that has been done on orchard, in research and in the markets should stand the sector in good stead for the future, she believes.

“It has been a really tough year for growers from a return perspective and the whole industry with challenges of the supply chain, of labour, and of not having great returns to their stakeholders,” Scoular told Hort News.

“Shipping was absolutely tough and expensive and that just meant nothing went to plan.

There was a need to be very agile in getting our fruits to our export markets.”

However, Scoular says it was acknowledged the previous four years were outstanding from a value perspective.

“Our expectations go up because we were the only imported product into Australia which is a very high returning market.

“And now Australia doesn’t return quite as much as they have opened up to Chile and are likely to open up to other markets; we are not the only importer into Australia anymore.”

Scoular says longstanding growers have been through years in the last 10 where they didn’t have a crop or they had a very poor crop.

“They recognise that this is one of the risks of horticulture and they make sure in those very good returning years they put some away to cover the years like the year we have just had.

“Those who have been in the industry five years or less haven’t been through that volatility of returns or volumes so definitely some are feeling the brunt of a very poor returning year.”

But there are positive

signs for the future.

After previous reliance on the Australian market, the export market was about 50/50 Australia and Asia by the end of November last year, she says.

“One of the positive outcomes of last year was that we put three times as much volume into Asia as we did the previous year and that has been a strategic objective for the industry,” Scoular adds.

“In comparison to Australia, who also had the same problem as our growers did with a very poor value market, they don’t have nearly as much access in Asian markets – so their fruit didn’t have any other home to go to.”

She says the Australian market itself is now definitely looking stronger for NZ. “There is less volume in the Australian market domestically and our exporters made some good new customers in Asia last year which they will continue to service in the coming year,” Scoular adds.

“And, of course, we can get there.

Three of our exporters have just come back from Asian visits meeting their customers again. It was hard developing those new relationships

by Zoom last year. That face-to-face is important in terms of engaging with customers.”

Shipping is still a problem and “a very challenging global issue”.

NZ Avocados recently had over 200 growers

at four field days up in Houhora, Whangarei, Te Puke and Katikati and they were positive, says Scoular.

“They know they are in horticulture; they recognise there were some positives last year though returns were poor, they know there is some balancing that will have to happen in terms of expectation.

But they know they are

11

GETTING MORE CONSISTENT A KEY focus for NZ Avocados on orchard has been on working on irregular bearing and ensuring a consistent crop each year.

Avocados tend to be a biennial crop, alternating between a low cropping and a high cropping season.

“A lot of work has gone into having a more consistent crop so that has been an absolute key focus of our research and our extension,” says Scoular.

“Growers are doing a lot more on orchard and definitely are seeing results from particularly canopy management, flower pruning, maintaining the health of their trees and just better understanding their trees so they don’t let them overcrop because that leads to an under crop.”

She says the development of best practice has helped even out the swings considerably.

“We also have the climatic impacts on irregular bearing in New Zealand so for the last five years we have had significant wind events but not significant cold events which did cause some of that irregular bearing as well.”

growing an amazing fruit that is meeting the needs of global consumers wanting to eat avocados from New Zealand.”

The industry is reassessing all the time.

“NZ Avocado is funded by the growers so we need to make sure we are delivering value back to the grower,” Scoular told Hort News.

“We are always looking at the areas we need to focus on. There’s new policy coming out from government on compliance so we are

trying to understand the best way for that compliance to be adopted by our growers without being a handbrake on the operation. There’s lot of work going on NZ Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular says there are positive signs for the future of the NZ avocado industry.

there.

“We are still working on sustainability because we know customers and consumers want to know about New Zealand’s sustainability credentials.

“And of course, growers like field days – seeing what other orchards are doing and meeting their fellow growers.

“It is great we are getting back into field days.

With the lockdowns we organised webinars so we still had some great audiences on webinars and Zoom calls.

“But the numbers of people at the field days suggests our growers really like getting out and being on an orchard to hear about our new research or industry updates.”

Overall, Scoular says NZ Avocados and the industry recognises the need to be agile and cope with changes.

“We need to recognise the number of players across our industry.

We’ve got very large orchards and very small orchards and everything in between. Part of understanding the best way forward is to say, ‘are we able to continue to add value to all those sectors or do we need to look at different ways of providing that service?’.

“Absolutely we need to do things in different ways if that will add value to growers.”

12

HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Rebuild for the country’s biosecurity service

Pam Tipa

BIOSECURITY NZ has been hit with staff shortages following the border closures.

But with the passenger pathway picking up more quickly than expected, it has a plan to urgently get its capability up to strength.

“We are in a challenging situation now,” says Steve Gilbert, regional commissioner, Central/ South region, Biosecurity NZ. “When the border closed, particularly the passenger pathway such as cruise ships and airlines, MPI decided not to have any redundancies.

We would use our quarantine officers in other areas within MPI until the border reopened. The officers were well trained and capable and close to 200 officers were redeployed throughout MPI.” He says many have now elected to remain in areas they had been deployed to. They have become compliance officers in fisheries or are working in science, technical areas, forestry and a whole range of MPI areas.

“With the borders reopening we have had to go into a massive recruitment surge. Queenstown is a good example.

We had no work (when borders were closed)

Biosecurity NZ says it is ramping up its capability with the return of tourists to protect the country’s all important primary sector.

for anybody in Queenstown because the only border activity there is the border itself,” Gilbert explains.

“That has been challenging in the job market... we lost experienced people and that has impacted on the capability of our workforce.”

The passenger pathway is picking up a lot quicker than what was thought.

Queenstown was back to pre-Covid levels in July and about 16,000 passengers a day are expected in Auckland over summer.

The pre-Covid the peak was 22,000 to 23,000.

“We are getting right back up there. People are travelling and more airlines are coming on board. We are seeing a rapid return. Cruise lines begin on October 4. We are pretty much back to pre-Covid in the number of cruise and port visits.

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is alive an operating and we have had to resource up.”

In some cases that meant starting from zero.

“Our major horticultural biosecurity risk mitigant for cruise lines is we accredit cruise lines and they have to do a whole lot of things to prevent biosecurity risk. That means we don’t have to check every passenger at every gangway and all that type of scenario,” Gilbert told Hort News.

“We are working with those lines, getting them accredited, getting them up and running but there are new people involved and its virtually starting again. We have tightened up on the biosecurity in cruise lines so the standard of accreditation is higher than previous times. We have taken the opportunity to review and make sure we nullify that risk. We are getting cooperation with the cruise lines.”

During the Covid closure period, Biosecurity NZ looked at the cargo

pathway in depth.

“We have made a number of changes to the cargo pathway that we will roll out over the next two or three months,” Gilbert says.

Most are around transitional facilities with increased requirements on third parties to demonstrate biosecurity compliance.

“We have found a number of issues where containers are going to places to be devanned or emptied that weren’t the places that we required them to go to. So, we have had quite a focus on the transport operation and the transport of containers.”

There is also much more air cargo coming into New Zealand.

“Airlines kept viable during Covid by carting cargo. Air New Zealand virtually turned itself into a cargo airline. You don’t normally get the documentation in some scenarios with air cargo and different types of products are being imported.

“There are a lot more brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) risk goods that would normally come through sea cargo coming through air cargo so we have had to rebuild and reskill our staff in around inspection in air cargo.

“With air cargo you normally get fresh produce etc. You didn’t get car parts or machinery and things like that which are often BMSB vectors.”

With BMSB, during the Covid border closure period Biosecurity NZ completely revised its used car programme from Japan, improving compliance to a much higher level.

“We now consider that a low-risk pathway.

We worked well with the motor industry – they have been really good.

That has traditionally been our higher risk of BMSB – those car ships.”

Overall, Gilbert says Biosecurity NZ is in a rebuild phase. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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14

HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

Local manufacturer builds spreader especially for orchards Mark Daniel markd@ruralnews.co.nz

BASED IN the heart of the Waikato, New Zealand manufacturer Coombridge & Alexander is well known for its range of yellow and green SAM Fertiliser spreaders, feeder wagons and tip trailers.

In 2020, the company’s 75th anniversary year, it took the opportunity to move into the horticulture and viticulture markets with their new SAM Orchard Spreader.

Now orchardists – including those growing avocado, kiwifruit, apples or grapes, amongst a host of other crops – can choose between spreading and banding from the tractor seat at the touch of a button.

This is made possible by the configuration of the main hopper belt, that moved forwards for banding/piling, and backwards for spreading offering the versatility to spread a wide range of products. From the rear the machine can easily spread superphosphate, lime,

With a low profile and narrow width, the spreaders offer orchardists and viticulturists great manoeuvrability.

urea and chicken manure, or band/pile compost, vermicast, or mulch from the front.

Featuring a single axle layout, the spreader has a capacity of 2 cubic metres, but can be optioned with top hats for extra capacity. Standard features include an 800-mm wide floorbelt, an intuitive computer controller, front and

rear safety nudge bars, the rear spinner assembly, combined spinner RPM control and the fixed front conveyor.

With a low profile and narrow width, the spreaders offer orchardists and viticulturists great maneuverability – as well a wide range of options of what they can spread.

Looking at the front conveyor, the assembly

is designed to band bulk products such as vermicast compost or even notoriously tricky mulch, dispensing material to the right-hand side of the machine. Offering the ability to apply material in a continuous windrow or as strategically placed piles, in either case, the operator has a clear view of the spreading as it takes place.

Application control takes a flick of the switch to instantly start or stop the application, with both conveyors switching together, meaning material is preloaded for the next run.

The rear, twin spreader unit features extensive use of stainless steel in the discs and spinner tubes making them suitable for granular

fertilisers or lime.

The spreading discs are driven via enclosed stainless-steel spinner tubes and two variable speed hydraulic motors.

Taking a closer look at the machine’s general construction, firstly the chassis gets a steel grit abrasive blast, followed by a thermal-arc pure zinc spray, a primer, and finally a two-pack epoxy

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Including the latest Grimme i-Systems technology, the Clever Planting system calculates the optimum planting space to maximise yield. It also has Section Control that automatically turns off the planting elements in the headlands and tramlines to help save seed, time and money.

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topcoat. The spreader bin is also constructed from stainless steel to offer a comprehensive package of corrosion protection and a long service life.

The SAM computer controller, rated to an IP 67 rating for water resistance, makes it easy for the operator to choose spreading or banding.

This is simply done by entering the spreading rate, density and tractor centres.

Options include a heavy-duty swivel drawbar coupling, LED lights for road use, individual spinner control, customer hopper widths, axle risers, a choice of tyre options and a touch screen display.

For those working in arduous or extended conditions, temperature monitors and oil coolers are available. Meanwhile, spinner-specific options include right-handed discharge only and another for blocking centre discharge. www.sammachinery. co.nz @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

HORTNEWS

AUGUST 2022

New tech sizes-up fruit Mark Daniel markd@ruralnews.co.nz

NZ AGRITECH company Hectre and its Spectre app are delivering fruit size and colour data to US packers and growers earlier than ever before.

Having faced the same issue for many years, fruit packers and growers have been unable to gain early access to quick and accurate fruit size and colour information at harvest time. It was finding a solution to this type of problem that led NZ entrepreneur Matty Blomfield to co-found Hectre in 2016 and launch Spectre for Apples in 2020.

Spectre is a computer vision AI solution, developed as part of the Hectre app on iPhone and iPad. It sees fruit such as apples just like the human eye would see them. Using proprietary technology,

“The more we know about the size profile of a particular grower’s crop in advance of it being brought into the packhouse, the better we can plan our sales programs.”

Hectre has taught the computer how to detect pieces of fruit, how to size those pieces of fruit, and for apples, to assess the colour.

Growers can use Spectre in their orchards as soon as the fruit is picked, gaining early size data, which they can share with their packhouses to

The easy-to-use Spectre technology allows users to only stand and raise an iPad or iPhone over a bin of fruit and take a photo.

inform sales plans.

“For fruit packhouses, huge value is gained with Spectre, with quick and easy capture of size data and colour estimation

reducing the incidence and negative impacts of incorrect storage, packing line resets, and wasted labour and fruit,” Blomfield explains.

He adds that with a commitment to “clever simplicity”, the Spectre technology is easy to use, requiring users to only stand and raise an iPad or

iPhone over a bin of fruit and take a photo. Within seconds, fruit size distribution graphs are served up, delivering massive increases in sample sizes,

15

without the need for more expensive equipment.

Fruit growers and packers across 11 countries are now using Hectre’s orchard technologies, including First Fresh NZ, Rockit, BC Tree Fruits and fruit leaders Washington Fruit & Produce.

“The more we know about the size profile of a particular grower’s crop in advance of it being brought into the packhouse, the better we can plan our sales programs,” says Ian Albers, managing director First Fresh NZ. Spectre currently sizes apples, oranges, lemons, and mandarins; while in response to demand from the cherry industry, a Spectre for Cherries pilot is now underway with cherry packers in Washington state. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

16

HORTNEWS

It pays to automate!

AUGUST 2022

Mark Daniel markd@ruralnews.co.nz

WITH THE hort industry struggling to attract staff at key times of the growing season, many businesses are taking the leap to automation.

Automation offers potential increases in productivity and quality, better returns and – importantly – a boost in team morale.

PrimeHort, based in Kaiwaka Northland, services the horticultural industry with an extensive range of products from basic handles, pots and garden hoses through to high end automation for commercial growers.

Growers and nurserymen will know that manual dibbling carried out by inexperienced staff is laborious, repetitive and often unreliable.

Poorly dibbled holes can lead to seedling damage, with anyone currently filling trays by hand or poking holes manually likely to agree that the process is slow and clunky.

As NZ exclusive distributors of the Italian specialist Da Ros Machinery, PrimeHort has provided mechanised solutions to more than 700 nurseries nationwide, with business continuing to grow year on year. Da Ros automated dibbling lines remove the manual element of potting production, while also allowing customisation to suit individual crops and

Automated dibbling lines remove the manual element of potting production, while also allowing customisation to suit individual crops.

INVESTMENT PAYS OFF

ADAM THOMPSON, of Restore Native at Te Miro, Cambridge, invested in a new Automated Dibbling Line from PrimeHort to assist his company’s production of native re-veg lines for native forest restoration and riparian planting.

the facilities where they are grown.

While the initial investment in a system might be around $80,000, the machinery typically pays for itself in one season – particularly

He says plantings are quite diverse with numerous species such as mānuka, Carex testacea and kahikatea, which all grow quite differently and need different container sizes when planted from seedlings.

“This means at production

in the current climate of labour shortages and rising wages. Typically, automation can achieve 10 times more output than one average worker.

It also allows a change of focus for existing staff,

time the tray sizes we use and grades we plant into can be quite varied between plant species,” Thompson explains.

“The Automated Dibbling Line gives us extra flexibility at planting time and also speeds up what would normally be a labour-

from manual work to roles that support automation – with the bonus of lifting morale.

Regarding potential output from automation, feedback suggests that nurseries that previously

intensive planting job for our staff.”

He says this has resulted in less time spent in production.

“This gives staff have more time with quality control and ensuring what we sell is the best quality.”

turned out 100,000 plants per season have upped production to 500,000 plants per season, with the same number of staff.

PrimeHort adds that Da Ros machinery is particularly suited to NZ

natives. Despite these having varying root structures and lack of uniformity among these plants, the dibbler line will drill holes with consistency in trays to suit all crops.

Additionally, the dibbling

heads can be changed to use a press plate or rotating drills to suit different plants, tray sizes, planting depth and position – all prerequisites for consistent quality and output.

Designed to offer a modular approach, users can start their journey to automation with a tray filler component.

This removes the labour intensive work of handling, filling, compacting and repeating the operation. In a singlepass, the unit will fill the soil, punch the holes and deliver around 400 dibbing-ready trays every hour.

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