Hort News 5 December 2023

HORTNEWS DECEMBER 2023, ISSUE 40

Vegetable grower pioneer still driven to succeed – Page 9

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

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How hort fared in 2023

For the country's horticultural sector, it's been a year that started off with the worst weather imaginable. It also had plenty of drama and intrigue and ended up with us getting a new tri-party government that has collectively promised to fix everything! Peter Burke reports.

HORTICULTURENZ’S DR BARRY O’Neil describes the past year as being “huge”.

He says growers had to deal with too much significant policy change that was being pushed by the outgoing government.

O’Neil says the most conten-

tious issues were Labour’s reforms, with totally unnecessary costs being imposed on employers.

“In addition, there were the environmental freshwater reforms that significantly restricted what could be grown and where, and pricing for emissions being imposed before technology

is available to mitigate.”

O’Neil says if that wasn’t enough, then there was Cyclone Gabrielle, the impact of which will be with NZ for years to come – especially in Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti.

He says it’s heartbreaking to still see the destruction that Gabrielle caused.

However, he adds it is also wonderful what a difference spring can make and seeing apples in flower in lovely warm Hawke’s Bay weather.

“This is a wonderful sight and I am very proud of the work that the industry and HortNZ did in supporting growers in the immediate aftermath,” he told Hort News, “as well as the ongo-

ing work in securing government support to assist growers in getting back on their feet.”

O’Neil says for him a really positive highlight of the year is the success of a programme of work called ‘A Lighter Touch’. This he says is about changing the hort sector’s approaches to crop production, with a transition from agrichemical pest management to agroecological crop protection.

O’Neil adds that there is some really exciting work happening across multiple product groups in finding ways of growing that require fewer agrichemicals. As the year wraps up, O’Neil believes it’s a good time to be thinking

of what 2024 will deliver. Hopeful for a better growing season, O’Neil is also keen for the new government to have a greater focus on horticulture.

“In any country there is only so much taxpayer funding that can go around, and there will always be tensions with what is the highest priority,” he explains.

“Health care, law and order, education and welfare support are all very important but they also are big users of the taxpayer dollar. But getting our economy working for NZ has to be the number one priority for the new government, so we can continue to afford and deliver what our country needs.”

WE HAVE LIFT OFF!

Murray Turley in the rows of his new 50,000-tree Rockit apple orchard on his farm near Rangitata in South Canterbury.

The orchard is a joint venture between Turley Farms Limited and the owners of the Rockit brand, Hawke’s Bay-based Rockit Global. With about 50,000 trees recently planted on a 20ha plot on Turley’s 1150ha Rangitata property, the orchard is expected to be produce its first commercial quantities of Rockit apples by 2025.

PHOTO: NIGEL MALTHUS.

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2

HORTNEWS

DECEMBER 2023

Tough year for kiwifruit, but hope that better times are coming QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

Peter Burke peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

THE COUNTRY’s kiwifruit growers are facing another tough year as the effects of adverse weather events kick in.

Zespri says the amount of kiwifruit that will be produced in the coming season is 140 million trays – well down on last season’s 160 million and even further below the 170 million produced in 2021.

But Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says the news is not all bad, with much-improved prices for this year and the prospect of higher production and good prices in the future.

He says this season’s low volume of fruit available for export is due to the warm weather and also the severe frost which hit many growers in the Bay of Plenty.

Some orchards in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti were hit by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Mathieson admits it’s been a tough season for growers and, for some, there will be relief in the updated price forecast, which has increased since the last projection in August.

Green is an example with the price per tray hitting $9.00 – up 90

IT WAS not only the weather that has seen returns to growers fall in the last couple of years, it was the poor quality of some of the fruit that caused problems.

One of the reasons given for this was the labour shortages that arose during Covid, meaning that fruit was picked hurriedly. This resulted in fruit being damaged and creating problems for Zespri’s customers with threats that unless quality was improved there would consequences.

Zespri quickly undertook a major project to sort this out and Mathieson says the feedback from customers is much more positive. He says with the lifting of Covid restriction, the industry has been able to employ a more stable and high quality workforce. He adds that, in addition to this, Zespri has been working with supply chain managers to audit and manage the fruit right through to market.

“For example, before Covid we had quality technicians on the ships carrying our fruit, but this was stopped during Covid,” Mathieson explains. “But this is now back in place and having people to accurately monitor the fruit on the ships is making a difference. This is all about ensuring that only the best quality fruit reaches our consumers.”

Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says there have been much-improved prices for this year and the prospect of higher production and good prices in the future.

cents on the August forecast and well ahead of the $5.78 growers were getting a year ago.

Zespri green organic growers can now expect to get up to $12.00 - up from $8.68 last season.

In fact, all the other

varieties including SunGold and RubyRed are significantly up on the earlier forecast.

Mathieson says when volumes are down, Zespri does its best to get the maximum return for its growers.

“For those growers who have been able to grow good yields, they’ll be doing very well, and for those growers who have had more challenging conditions on orchard, this will help,” he told Hort News. “But

their overall returns are still going to be down, which is going to be challenging for them.”

In terms of recovering from the various adverse weather events, Mathieson says it’s still early days – overall it’s look-

ing good, but it has been patchy in some areas.

However, he says it’s still much better than at the same time in the previous season.

Orchards hit by the frost appear to be recovering well, but Mathieson says for those orchards hit by Cyclone Gabrielle

the road to recovery may take years for them to get back to full production.

“But what we are seeing is that if the weather gods are kind, the chances are that the 24/25 crop will see the volumes of fruit produced back to what they were in 2021,” he says.

STRONG MARKET PROSPECTS FOR KIWIFRUIT ZESPRI SAYS there is strong demand for NZ kiwifruit in all markets and especially in China.

Chief executive Dan Mathieson told Hort News that this is particularly encouraging given the trauma the industry has gone through in the past few years – with adverse weather events, labour problems and Covid-19.

He says with the fruit quality issues sorted, Zespri now has good quality fruit flowing into markets and the demand is strong.

He says China has been a standout market and is going from strength-tostrength with consumers looking for healthy and nutritious food.

“The Zespri brand is a very trusted source of health and nutrition and is much sought after in the Chinese market.”

Mathieson says they are also seeing very good demand and performance from other markets such

ZESPRI SEEKS TOP INNOVATORS ZESPRI HAS begun a search for get some of the world’s top innovators and thinkers and has set aside more than $2 million to achieve this.

Called the ZAG innovation fund, the purpose is to attract innovative problem solvers from around the world to partner with Zespri to help them keep pace with an ever changing world.

Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says the pace of change is rapid right across the horticultural and primary sectors and it is becoming more challenging to grow a stable supply of great quality kiwifruit.

He says Zespri recognises that it’s facing some significant challenges and to overcome these it needs some of the best thinkers and innovators

as Europe – which he describes as a star performer. He says the news for Zespri right across the Asia Pacific

in the world.

“We need to tap into people and companies who can bring new technologies and ideas to help us accelerate our process to find solutions to some of these challenges – especially around climate change, fruit quality packaging, worker welfare and health and nutrition.”

Mathieson says while Zespri has done very well in this space in the past, it recognises that it has to do better. With that in mind he says it wants to partner with the best companies and people in the world who can find solutions and generate new ideas and technologies that will benefit the kiwifruit industry and the wider horticulture sector.

region is positive for both the SunGold, Zespri Green and the organic varieties. He also points to Vietnam

as another market that is doing well.

“One other pleasing market for us has been North America. This is

a market we have been investing in a big way in the last five or six years,” Mathieson told Hort News. “We are seeing good growth in both our SunGold, Green and Organics in that market. We see very good growth opportunities there over the coming years as the volumes return in 2024 and 2025.”

Mathieson concedes that the last two years for growers has been very hard, with many having their crops impacted by the frosts or other weather events.

However, he hopes this latest news with the recovery progressing, fruit quality improving, better prices for the coming season will help instil some confidence in growers. He adds that if the promised better and more stable weather patterns occur, there is a likelihood that there will be better yields in the future and, with it, better returns to growers. - Peter Burke

HORTNEWS

DECEMBER 2023

Apple tree recovery surprises “We recommended that growers whose trees had been waterlogged spray this on the trees.”

Peter Burke peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

A LEADING Plant and Food Research scientist is pleasantly surprised at how many apple trees in Hawke’s Bay have recovered from the effects of Cyclone Gabrielle and other rains that hit the region this year.

Jim Walker is an expert in dealing with apple trees. He, along with a team of rural professionals from Hawke’s Bay, including representatives from Apples and Pears NZ, AgFirst and others, have been busy this year working on finding solutions to get apple orchards damaged by the heavy rains back to some sort of normal.

Immediately following the cyclone, the team got together and their first task was to draw up a list of 30 orchards which represented a cross sec-

3

Apple tree expert Jim Walker, along with a team of rural professionals, have been busy this year working on finding solutions for Hawke’s Bay apple orchards damaged by the heavy rains.

TESTING TIME STILL AHEAD WALKER SAYS while at first glance the situation looks promising, there is still uncertainty about this year’s apple crop and those in subsequent seasons.

He notes that not everything plays out in the first season.

“Apple trees that have bloomed well are now entering a critical phase.”

Walker says for fruit to reach maturity, it needs the capacity from the root system and there is no science that can predict what might or might not happen. He adds that some trees may yet collapse this

season and others may do so in subsequent seasons.

“This situation still has a little time to play out for this season.

In some situations, we can get 10% tree loss in a block and if that’s the case it really starts to destroy the economics of the operation,” Walker told Hort News. “If the losses are gradual, this means that potentially the decision to replant will be delayed and may prove costly.”

Despite all the ‘ifs and buts’, there is no doubt that the Flood Recovery team and growers have pulled off a miracle of sorts. The early decision to tell

growers to spray with phosacid and the science on the hoof has turned what eight months ago looked like a complete disaster into a situation where there is hope and maybe more success.

Meanwhile, the research findings from Cyclone Gabrielle are being carefully documented and will likely be published in a scientific journal. Walker says there may be more events like this in NZ or overseas and the lessons from what the Hawke’s Bay Flood Response team have discovered may help others faced with similar situations.

tion of the different types of damage. They visited these on a regular basis to gather data that could be applied to other orchards.

Despite the ongoing wet conditions, they took soil samples and started to assess what could be done.

“The challenge we faced was that no one in NZ had encountered this sort of situation before where fruit trees in the middle of harvest were exposed to such flooding, water logging and being inundated with heavy deposits of silt,” Walker told Hort News.

“We were also faced

with the situation that there are a range of soil types on the Heretaunga Plains – some free draining and others not. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that after Cyclone Gabrielle the rain continued to fall.”

The big problem that Walker and the team had to face was root rot or Phytophthora, which effectively attacks and destroys the root system.

The team came up with a recommendation that has probably proved to be the saviour of thousands of apple trees – a little known chemical called phosphorus acid.

This acted as a stimulant to the trees and encouraged the plants’ defences to kick in.

“We recommended that growers whose trees had been waterlogged spray this on the trees,” he explains. “Some were able to do this using conventional ground spraying equipment, but in many cases the ground was too waterlogged and muddy for machines, so helicopters were used to get the spray on the damaged apples trees.”

Walker says, by and large, the same orchards that were damaged have had an excellent bloom.

He says the exceptions appear to be orchards that even prior to Cyclone Gabrielle had drainage problems caused by blocked drains or the soil itself was just so waterlogged.

Walker says problems may also have occurred for orchardists who didn’t spray their trees with phosacid. However, overall, he says the problems were nowhere near as bad as was first anticipated.

“We are very surprised to see some pretty healthy trees and good fruit set at this time of the season.”

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DECEMBER 2023

Tears of joy for onions over FTA

HORTNEWS

5

Sudesh Kissun sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

ONION GROWERS will be saving $6.5 million on tariffs once the free trade agreement (FTA) with its number one market – the European Union – is ratified next year.

Last month, 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voted in favour to approve the agreement. The FTA will come into force once ratified by the incoming New Zealand Government.

This is expected around the middle of next year.

Onions NZ chief executive James Kuperus told Hort News that 40% of NZ onions exports are destined for Europe. This is approximately 70,000 tonnes a year, returning $65m to rural New Zealand.

“This FTA puts us on a level playing field with some of our competitors such as Chile and in a more favourable position than countries such as Australia,” he says. “The FTA will save the industry about $6.5m a year which is significant for our sector.”

The EU FTA is good news for the

Onions NZ chief executive James Kuperus says 40% of NZ onions exports are destined for Europe, returning $65m a year.

SECTOR BOUNCING BACK IN THE year to March 2023, the New Zealand onion industry exported $143 million worth of onions to 45 countries and employed 1,050 people.

Kuperus says onions are an important part of many vegetable growers’ rotations in New Zealand. He adds that improving market access will lead to better outcomes for onion growers and the wider sector.

“We are fortunate to have

hard working Government officials that continued to advocate for free trade agreements and market access during the Covid pandemic.

“We are starting to see the results of this hard work now and owe these people a lot for their work in countries which at times had a lot stricter lockdowns than New Zealand.”

Commenting on this year’s onion crop, Kuperus told Hort

News the sector has recovered from the recent weather woes and plantings have been completed.

“The area planted is back to normal. Currently the crop is looking good, however there is a long way to go,” he says.

“Last year was an extreme year and we are hoping we don’t see a season like that again. In the Hawke’s Bay alone, we lost 40% of the crop to Cyclone Gabrielle.”

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sector, given the extremely difficult season onion producers have had in the North Island.

Kuperus says, overall, the sector has been bruised by the last few years with extreme weather and the Covid pandemic.

“However, the future is looking promising if we can improve market access to markets such as the EU and China,” he adds.

While NZ onion growers don’t have market access to China, the sector is working on establishing trade in that country. Recently, Onions NZ led a delegation to China for the CIIE fair. Kupe-

rus says the delegation included onion exporters and they met with importers, retailers and NZ Government officials.

“We currently do not have phytosanitary (biosecurity) market access to China. But we’re looking to establish two way trade with China, after China gained market access to New Zealand in 2017,” he explains.

“We believe within five to 10 years after market access is achieved, China will be one of our largest markets.

We’re very fortunate to be well represented in China by New Zealand officials who are working hard to improve market access for horticulture crops.”

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HORTNEWS

DECEMBER 2023

Southern launchpad for Rockit

7

Nigel Malthus

ONE OF the power farming families of South Canterbury is branching out into orcharding with the establishment of a large apple orchard, near Rangitata.

The orchard is a joint venture between Murray and Margaret Turley’s Turley Farms Limited and the owners of the Rockit brand, Hawke’s Bay-based Rockit Global.

With about 50,000 trees recently planted on a 20ha plot on Turley’s 1150ha Rangitata property, the orchard is expected to produce its first commercial quantities of Rockit apples by 2025.

Murray Turley told Hort News they began exploring the potential for pipfruit in South Canterbury two and a half years ago, with the company agronomist Dominic Cosgrove visiting Hawke’s Bay to assess possible varieties.

He says another advantage is the scale of orchard they can bring to Canterbury’s open plains.

“We’ve got rows here that are 900-plus metres long which leads to a lot of efficiencies. That’s the beauty of a greenfield site.”

The chosen paddock, unsuitable for onions or potatoes, was in wheat last year and would have gone into process peas if the orchard had not gone ahead.

“We grow a lot of

Murray Turley, right, with his company agronomist Dominic Cosgrove in their small trial orchard where they will continue to test other varieties and management methods as the company branches into apple production. NIGEL MALTHUS

GEOGRAPHICAL DIVERSIFICATION

Turley Farms’ new 50,000-tree Rockit apple orchard takes shape near Rangitata on the South Canterbury plains. SUPPLIED

wheat, grass seed, white clover, peas and hybrid vegetable seeds on this property, and lamb trading in the winter.”

The Turleys are well-

known in South Canterbury, being instrumental in establishing Farmers Mill, which produces all the flour for Griffins NZ, as well as the onion pro-

cessing plant, Southern Packers. Both are examples of their supporting the farmers of the district to collaborate in getting produce to market.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES THE ORCHARD has been established on a 2D post-and-wire system, with trees 1.5m apart to be trained along eleven wires in each row. The rows are 2.8m apart.

By going away from a traditional goblet or bush shape the trees will eventually form slim vertical walls for maximum and consistent light interception, which will in turn give consistent colour to the fruit.

They will be drip irrigated from the Rangitata South Irrigation Scheme. Solid fertiliser is currently being applied by GPSenabled machinery but fertigation is planned down the track.

About 3% are pollinator trees – Granny Smith, chosen because it flowers just a little before the Rockit.

Turley says the orchard will

employ “quite a lot” of workers particularly in the establishment phase when there is a lot of work in training the trees to grow along the wires.

“But then once it’s trained, it’s more programmable,” he told Hort News. “It’s more ‘paint by numbers’ and it’s easier to give instructions.”

Meanwhile Cosgrove explains that you can give someone three or four rules to go through in terms of pruning and tree training.

“They can go through and do more or less the same thing on each tree – with some slight tweaks, probably – but it’s much easier to train someone. Ten or 15 minutes, you can give them a good broad overview.”

With a traditional bushy tree every tree is different and it’s

much harder to train someone to assess each tree and understand the right thing to do.

Turley adds that the 2D structure will also lend itself well to robotic harvesting when that becomes viable.

Cosgrove says they will maintain the trial orchard as their test bed for management techniques, such as assessing how best to thin the crop for the optimum amount of fruit each tree is capable of carrying.

Being two years ahead of the main orchard, it will give them “a good steer” on what is happening or needed in the main plot.

“This trial gives us the opportunity to try a few different things and see what works and what doesn’t in relation to the bigger orchard.”

They are also looking for further investors to eventually expand the apple orchard to at least 100 ha over the next three years.

The Turleys are also major shareholders in the country’s biggest corporate dairy company, Dairy Holdings, where Murray is a director.

But he says the district has now seen ‘peak cow’. “We’re surrounded by dairy farmers here.

Our water’s reasonably expensive, so it’s probably time to look at what we can do better with that irrigation water.

“Some of the arable crops are just a bit of a struggle at times to get the revenue to offset that water charge.”

Turley says Rockit apples emerged as a standout opportunity, offering excellent eating characteristics, a unique consumer proposition and brand, great growing support and premium returns for growers.

ROCKIT GLOBAL says horticulture has the potential to transform the rural Canterbury landscape over the next 20 years.

“Growing apples uses significantly less water, requires markedly lower nitrogen inputs than either dairy or arable production and, as a perennial crop, doesn’t require annual cultivation,” explains chairman John Loughlin.

General manager commercial Tom Lane says a key part of the company’s strategy was geographical diversification.

“Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne remain home for Rockit, but we are looking to ensure the longterm resilience of our growing footprint,” he told Hort News. “We are using climate scenario modelling to identify new growing regions and see Canterbury becoming a prime region for horticultural production in New Zealand in coming years.”

Welcoming the alliance with the Turleys, Lane says they have a well-deserved reputation as excellent growers at the forefront of innovation and diversification.

“We are proud to have them as our first commercial partner in the South Island.”

Early apples from a small trial orchard, near the site, were independently tested for parameters like colour, size, and internal characteristics – giving them the confidence to proceed with the main orchard.

Rockit has been bred as “the world’s first miniature apple” and is further differentiated in the market by being sold prepackaged in recyclable plastic tubes.

Cosgrove says they chose Rockit because larger varieties may be hampered by the South Canterbury climate.

“Some of the other varieties – Envy or other ones where you’re trying

to compete on size – the market just wants a big apple. Then if we’re going to be 10% smaller based on climate and growing degree days we may not be able to compete headto-head,” he told Hort News.

“But with a miniature apple we think we can hit that mark pretty effectively.”

Cosgrove says they should also achieve better colour and the lower humidity may also work in their favour.

“We have more of a differentiation between cool nights and warm days than, say, Gisborne or Hawke’s Bay, so that accentuates colour.”

8

HORTNEWS

DECEMBER 2023

Food security crucial for country and kick them down the road for someone else to handle,” O’Neil says.

“That is just not good enough and has to change – we must address them, for everyone’s future.”

O’Neill also believes that central and regional government, Māori, industry, and the wider community must find a way of working together to be able to make decisions within a reasonable time and cost framework.

“We are fiddling while Rome burns. We can’t take 20 years to land these issues, nor can we afford to spend hundreds of millions arguing the solutions.”

He says this is not rocket science because the solutions are under our noses.

“We all need to engage with open minds, understand the issues and options available, agree the way forward and make it happen.”

Peter Burke peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

HORT NZ chair Barry O’Neil says food supply and security is fundamental to New Zealand’s future.

He says the question has to be asked whether people want fresh fruit and vegetables grown in NZ. O’Neil stresses that unless highly productive land is retained and the cost of production kept at a reasonable level, the alternative will be imported product.

“That is the scenario we are facing and to us it’s a no brainer,” he told Hort News.

“We want our children and grandchildren to always have access to our own produce. We need to get Kiwis eating healthy, nutritious food to address the health consequences we are seeing all too much of in New Zealand.”

Hort NZ chair Barry O’Neil says food supply and security is fundamental to New Zealand’s future.

O’Neil says other issues the incoming government needs to address include “a totally messed

up” resourcing and consenting system, an Environmental Protection Agency approval system

that is “for all intents and purposes broken” and labour policies that seem to incentivise low pro-

hard issues – something that has not happened to date. “We keep on delaying making decisions

ductivity. He adds that the challenge facing the country is how to get agreement on some really

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HORTNEWS NOVEMB ER 2021 , ISSUE

Bumper cherry cro p predicted – Page 7

Sweet res ult for ho rt!

19

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

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ruralnew s.co.

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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 See story . pages 4 and 5.

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HORTNEWS

DECEMBER 2023

Vegetable grower pioneer still driven to suceed Glenys Christian

RETIRED PUKEKOHE vegetable grower, Alan Wilcox, had a lot of stories to tell at his recent 100th birthday celebration.

One of the most interesting was about being on board when the first airfreighted kiwifruit were sent to Europe back in 1975.

While his father was a dairy farmer at Harrisville, when Alan and his brother Graham left school they started vegetable growing. But by the 1970s Wilcox got involved in kiwifruit, which he thought would be a good semi-retirement project, planting up 20 hectares.

He became a grower director of Turners and Growers in 1973. Two years later he received a phone call from fellow director, Roy Turner, asking if his passport was up to date. It was early in

the season and the price of fruit was high and a plane – which had arrived in Auckland – would have returned to Europe empty if a suitable cargo hadn’t been found.

A couple of days later Wilcox was at Auckland Airport at 4am to get on board the flight carrying its cargo of kiwifruit and feijoas.

“We sat in with the fruit in overcoats but every hour or two we were allowed up on the flight deck to get warm,” he told a morning tea put on by the Pukekohe Vegetable Growers’ Association (PVGA), of which he’s a life member.

The trip, which took three days, made stops in Singapore, Dubai, Istanbul and finally Schiphol in the Netherlands. At the first stop, Wilcox noticed an engineer travelling with the flight putting a ladder up against the side

Retired Pukekohe vegetable grower Alan Wilcox recently celebrated his 100th birthday.

of the plane and carrying up cans of oil.

“So that was my job from then on, to hand the oil to him,” he told Hort News.

At the end of the 1980s, Wilcox saw the writing on the wall with seven different kiwifruit exporters competing with each other, driving down overseas returns. By then his sons, Garth and Robert were also involved in vegetable growing.

“They were making money and I was wasting it,” he said.

So, the kiwifruit vines came out, the posts and wire were sold and the land went back into vegetables. Wilcox joined the PVGA in 1943 and attended the first meeting of the Vegetable Growers Federation (VegFed). From 1967 to 1970, he was coopted onto its wage negotiations committee, and in 1982 was elected vice-

9

chairman of the Potato Growers Federation.

The next year, he was appointed to the Horticulture Export Authority (HEA), which was cut short with the election of the Labour government the following year.

He particularly enjoyed mixing with different growers from around the country in all these roles.

“A potato grower from out of Invercargill used to bring me Southland swedes in his briefcase,” he recalls.

Wilcox remembers several very wet growing seasons in the 1960s – “but not as bad as this one. It’s been one out of the box.”

Recently, Wilcox passed his driving license test again for another two year term, making him one of only 23 drivers in the country aged over 100. “I’m a bit lucky, aren’t I?”

Now the ‘Envy’ of the Chinese GLOBAL DEMAND for the Envy apple brand means the first commercially produced Chinese variety of the apple is now being sold in China.

T&G Global chief executive Gareth Edgecombe says the company’s dualhemisphere multi-sourcing strategy has led to the opportunity for a significant commercial volume of locally grown apples in China, which is an important part of its growth strategy.

He says the Envy brand was developed in NZ by harnessing Kiwi-IP and is on track to become a billion-dollar brand.

“To meet forecast consumer demand of 18 million tray carton equivalents by 2030, we need to maximise our multi-country sourcing strategy across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres,” Edgecombe explains.

“That’s why we license the growing of Envy in New Zealand and in other countries, including China. Doing this helps ensure the continual availability of the brand and that consumers and retailers have confidence in the legitimacy and quality of the fruit.”

Initially, T&G Global worked with Joy Wing Mao, who were granted a license in 2018 to grow and sell a managed commercial volume of Envy

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in China. It’s these volumes which are now appearing on-shelf in China.

“Growing the brand’s footprint requires us to ensure we have the right protections in place to vigorously protect and defend our IP for the benefit of breeders, growers, retailers and T&G,” Edgecombe adds.

“This is something we’ve always done and will continue to do through plant variety rights, patents and trade-

marks, along with the support of leading intellectual property law firms both in New Zealand and offshore.”

The company’s variety management subsidiary VentureFruit manages the licensing of all T&G’s plant varieties and brands.

It also leads action against any unauthorised plantings, propagation, counterfeiting and trademark infringements.

10 HORTNEWS

DECEMBER 2023

Nelson orchardist is this year’s Young Horticulturist of the Year MERYN WHITEHEAD has taken out the coveted title of New Zealand Young Horticulturist of the Year for 2023.

The Nelson orchardist battled it out against six other competitors – representing various horticultural sectors – during a two-day final held in Karaka in mid-November.

The 29-year-old is a team co-ordinator at Vailima Orchard, a fourthgeneration, family-owned business with more than 200 hectares of apple orchards stretching over the Tasman district’s Waimea plains.

Speaking after being announced as the competition winner, Whitehead said she felt a sense of disbelief.

“The other competitors knew their stuff and were an intimidating bunch to go up against,” she explained.

“Having said that, it never felt like a competition; we were more like a support group for each other. It was a lovely group to be with and I felt privileged and lucky to be part of that.”

Held in November each year, the Young Horticulturist Competition brings together the best young talent in horticulture. Finalists are tested on their horticultural practical skills, leadership ability, speechcraft, business acumen and industry knowledge.

Whitehead – from the fruit and vegetable sector – was up against competitors represent-

The line-up of the finalists in the 2023 Young Horticulturist of the Year competition.

SISTERS DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES WHITEHEAD WAS joined on the podium at award dinner by two other female competitors.

Auckland’s Renee Johnson, representing the Amenity Horticulture (recreation association) sector finished in second place; and third place getter Lydia O’Dowd of Christchurch, representing the plant producer sector.

Whitehead won the T&G

ing winegrowers, amenity horticulture, plant producers, landscapers, arborists and florist/ flower growers.

She says becoming an orchardist was never a clear-cut career decision – despite having been at

Fresh Practical Components, Fruitfed Supplies Leadership and Bayer Best Practise awards and was third in the Countdown Innovation Project.

Johnson won Countdown Best in Sector award and was second in the innovation project.

O’Dowd was the Countdown Innovation Project winner and also won the

Vailima Orchard for three years. Whitehead always figured she wanted to work outdoors, but it took a trip across the world to clarify what that would look like.

“After leaving university in Wales I decided

RNZIH Best Speech Award.

Meanwhile, Sarah-Lee Ewe, a Ramarama florist, won the Horticentre Charitable Trust Sustainability Award.

Young Horticulturist Competition chairperson Hamish Gates says the competition – now in its 18th year – continues to seed the future of horticulture.

“We feel very privileged to be able to continue fostering

to go travelling before beginning a career,” she explains. “I reached New Zealand and did some seasonal work on a smallscale stone fruit orchard in Hastings and enjoyed it so much I went back the next summer.”

the future leaders of this wonderful industry. Over the past few years, we have seen rapidly growing support from our sectors, helpers, and sponsors alike,” he says.

“As a result, we are getting finalists who are more prepared, more impressive, and more competitive showing off their talent. Horticulture’s future is in highly skilled and capable hands.”

Whitehead describes herself as “a bit of a hybrid,” having been born in England, spending most of her life in Wales and now calling NZ home. “After travelling around New Zealand, between these two

seasons, I met a Kiwi and decided to give NZ a bit more of my time than originally planned. That was eight years ago.”

Back in the UK, her horticulture-focused family is celebrating her success. Whitehead’s

younger sister recently acquired an apprenticeship at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and her father manages a National Trust estate.

While Whitehead concedes that she very much ‘stumbled’ into orchard work, she’s found it ticks a lot of her desired career boxes.

“I’ve always been active and love that this job lets me get out and about with the practical side of things,” she says.

“But I also love the office work I do, whether that’s organising teams, or coming up with ways to make work more efficient and easier for our staff.”

She also enjoys the variety and especially relishes the opportunity to encourage newer or younger staff members to push themselves, and to find the area of the business which they really enjoy. Now as Young Horticulturist of the Year she’s even more committed to this.

“I know I want to keep encouraging other people to take these chances and opportunities like this competition as it really pays off,” Whitehead adds.

“I want to pass on my passion for an industry I have stumbled into and want young people to see there are opportunities in this industry for anyone.”

Last year’s winner was Regan Judd, also an orchardist and viticulturist Rhys Hall took out the title in 2021.

SHOPPING BEHAVIOURS CONTINUE TO EVOLVE Leo Argent

LATEST RESEARCH by agri banking specialist Rabobank and food rescue charity KiwiHarvest says NZ households are spending significantly more on food amid continually changing purchasing and consumption behaviours.

The first Food Waste Survey was conducted in April 2021, with the recent survey – carried out by independent research agency KANTAR – involving interviews with 1500 New Zealanders in July and August this year.

The study found the average New Zealand household is now spending $238 per week on food, 9% more than they were in 2022.

Despite rising prices, most New Zealanders’ grocery shopping behaviours were largely in line with a year ago, with 72% favouring doing a main grocery shop and then ‘top-up’ shopping as necessary, with 19% only doing a main shop and no top up shopping.

The remaining 10% say they only grocery shop as they need things.

However, the survey did uncover a few minor changes in shopping

behaviours likely motivated by a desire to keep the weekly food bill down.

There was also a sizeable fall in the numbers of New Zealanders identifying as vegan (3% from 5%) and the number of Kiwis planning on reducing meat consumption.

“Across recent surveys, we’ve seen around 30% of respondents saying they are planning to reduce meat consumption, citing a range of reasons for doing so – including perceived health benefits, cost of meat and a desire to reduce the impact on the environment,” says Rabobank head of sus-

tainable business development Blake Holgate.

“However, the survey data does suggest attitudes towards meat may be changing.

“Only 25% of New Zealanders are now saying they are planning to reduce meat consumption, while at the other end of the spectrum, 9% of Kiwis now say they plan to eat more meat (up from 7%).”

Having first started tracking food service app usage in 2019, the survey also found food app usage appears to have stabilised following several years of strong growth.

HelloFresh, in particular, recorded exceptionally strong growth since its entrance to the New Zealand market in 2018 (32% of New Zealanders had used the service in the last 12 months compared to 6% in the 2019 survey).

However, the 2023 survey found usage of the major food service apps had plateaued with usage stable across the three largest providers, while among emerging food service apps usage was also relatively unchanged. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

DECEMBER 2023

HORTNEWS

Robo packer hits a billion Leo Argent

Alexandre Prot of Vergers de Sennevieres. PIC SUPPLIED

11

NEW ZEALAND inventor and manufacturer Robotics Plus Limited’s fruit packing robot has hit a major milestone of one billion pieces of fruit packed.

The billionth piece of fruit packed – an apple – was in France at Vergers de Sennevieres. The robots were sold, installed, and supported by industrial equipment supplier Sormaf in 2022. The machines have allowed Vergers de Sennevieres to redeploy resources from this traditionally labour-intensive process into higher value post-harvest activities.

Global Pac Technologies, another Kiwi company, started marketing the Aporo produce packing robot in 2018 on behalf of Robotics Plus Limited.

Global Pac sales director Cameron McInness says this milestone is a testament to the partnership and collaboration between designers, supply partners and end-users resulting in revolutionary change

to packhouses. “The Aporo produce packer is a market leader in loose fruit packing automation globally and its ground-breaking technology continues to evolve, bringing with it accuracy and speed,” he explains. “[Aporo’s] compact footprint is ideal for retrofitting into existing facilities, as well as intuitive controls that minimise the need for operator intervention and a design that prioritises food safety – all attributes the industry asked for and the team at Robotics Plus has delivered.”

The company says it is active in eight countries around the world, robotically packing apples and stonefruit with more fruit types coming online soon.

“It is important that wevthank everyone who played a role in taking what was originally a doctoral study, commercialising the technology, and taking it to the world through our dedicated distribution partners,” McInness adds. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

12 HORTNEWS

DECEMBER 2023

Smart money backs smart machine MARLBOROUGH-BASED start-up SmartMachine claims its new machine is one of the most significant operational step changes for viticulture since the advent of the tractor 130 years ago.

The company’s flagship product Oxin is the world’s first fully autonomous, multi-tasking viticultural robotic tractors.

These cutting-edge machines promise to revolutionise the viticulture landscapes by enabling greater operational efficiencies and addressing the challenges posed by the ongoing labour shortages the industry faces.

This development has seen the start-up attract the interest of global investor FABALI, which has invested into SmartMachine.

The company’s first funding round has raised $1.93m, securing ongoing support from multinational Pernod Ricard

The Smart Machine team from left Nick Gledhill, Walter Langlois and Andrew Kersley.

Winemakers and attracting new Investors FABAL Investments, New Zealand Growth Capital Fund, Angel Investors Marlborough and Angel HQ.

Company spokesman Andrew Kersley says that at a time where the investment market has been challenging, this highlights the uniqueness of the product offer-

ing and value proposition that the company’s products and service offer to global horticultural industries.

FABALI Group chief executive Ashley Keegan

says that after looking hard at the global landscape, this technology and the team behind it has the potential to be one of the most significant operational step

changes for the industry since the advent of the tractor over 130 years ago.

Foundation partner Pernod Ricard Winemakers has also backed the product and business

from the beginning. Viticulture transformation manager David Allen says the company’s continued investment in SmartMachine’s technology is down to how it can revolutionise the viticulture landscape.

Kersley says it is an exciting time for the business. “We are focusing on building out our revenue model in New Zealand and establishing our market position in Australia, while strategically working through our launch in the United States.”

He says it has both industry and government backing through MPI and its Sustainable Farming Futures Fund to build a fully electric version of the machine, which he claims will ‘shift the dial’ even further regarding the sustainable benefits of this technology. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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