Bearing the weight of high-yielding crops

Specialist skills in orchard structures are in demand from lifestyle block and hobby farmers across the greater North Island.

Brothers Simon and Patrick Torr originally established KOS Fencing to repair and maintain structures for industry leading orchard managers and packhouses, but Simon says there’s an increasing number of orchard hobbyists and land owners reaching out who are looking to convert avocados or maximise pro ts from spare land.

“We’ve established ourselves as the ‘go to’ orchard development contractors across the Bay of Plenty and want smaller landowners to know we’re also available for them to convert avocados, bare land or space you don’t know what to do with.

“Our experienced team have been designing and constructing orchards with tried and true methods over a decade now; KOS orchards stand the test of time, and if they don’t; we come back and x them.

“KOS Fencing can provide a full end-to-end solution for land and crop conversion - from removing trees, prepping the land ready for kiwifruit and developing the kiwifruit structure ready for planting. We like to use the phrase ‘turn-key orchards’.

KOS general manager Patrick Torr and his partner bought land on the outskirts of Te Puke, with the goal of making use of the property to grow “something”.

With the land and micro climate creating ideal conditions for growing Kiwifruit, and with the cost e cient means of developing the structure within the KOS team, a sport of kiwifruit was the obvious choice.

“We build all our orchards in a way that allows growers to focus on production. Ease of management, strength and aesthetics are all priorities in our builds,” says Simon. After assessing the market, crop size and returns, Patrick settled on the red variety of Kiwi berry that will be ready for rst harvest 2025.

KOS Fencing has the skills, experience and expertise to deliver superior kiwifruit orchard structures across the range and size of orchards. For further information see our advert below.