Packhouses gearing up for bumper kiwifruit crop

Packhouses around Te Puke are busy advertising for staff as the kiwifruit picking season looms next month.
Despite the outbreaks of a debilitating virus that has attacked about 200ha of vines, packhouse managements are looking forward to a bigger crop this year than last.
Aerocool Ltd's general manager Richard Nicholson says his company is keen to recruit "upper level staff"' at this early stage of the season.
"We want key people in key areas," he says and encourages anyone with management skills who may have been made redundant during the past year "to give the kiwifruit industry a go.
"It's a great industry and growing all the time. It has proven recession-proof.
"We've never laid off any staff due to the recession."
Aerocool packs five varieties of kiwifruit, avocados and nashi pears.
"It's a 12 months a year workload, so it offers viable full-time jobs," Mr Nicholson says.
Aerocool employ a total of 340 people during the busy times, including night shift at the packhouse, off SH2 at Paengaroa.
Among the staff due later are 65 RSE workers from the Pacific Islands.
They basically work the night shift "because Kiwis are not keen on working then."
The company also manages orchards with about 180 field staff and has three orchards plagued by the Psa virus and another three at risk.
But Mr Nicholson has every confidence
"Kiwi ingenuity" will deal to the dreaded, more aggressive Italian strain of the disease.
"The industry is very unified looking for a solution," he says.
The CEO of Te Puke biggest packhouse EastPack, Tony Hawken, says the coming season is shaping well despite Psa.
"There looks to be good crop on the vines," he says.
Packhouse workers share the concerns of growers about containing or eradicating the disease but it was only likely to affect two per cent of the 2011 crop, he said.