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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Apata manager takes title

By Chris Steel
Bay News·
20 Aug, 2015 11:46 PM2 mins to read

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Craig Ward, from Apata Group Ltd in Katikati was named 2015 Young Fruit Grower of the Year and runner up for the overall competition. Photo/Ivor Earp-Jones.

Craig Ward, from Apata Group Ltd in Katikati was named 2015 Young Fruit Grower of the Year and runner up for the overall competition. Photo/Ivor Earp-Jones.

Katikati's Craig Ward, from Apata Group Ltd was named 2015 Young Fruit Grower of the Year and runner up for the overall competition.

The technical manager at Apata said he was honoured and proud of his achievement.

"I was up against a group of talented young growers who had won their own regional competitions, so I was thrilled with the result."

Craig was one of five regional champions battling it out in a series of practical and theoretical challenges that tested their essential industry knowledge and skills. The most challenging task Craig found was the crate construction.

"I don't believe any of us managed to finish our crates, due to the time limit we had for the challenges. Mine only had three sides when the buzzer went."

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Craig said meeting with the other contestants, and networking with sponsors and attendees, he learnt a lot about other horticultural industries and the challenges they face.

"The competition also exposed me to some of the high quality leaders we have in the horticultural industry, giving me confidence that the industry has a bright future."

Craig's role at Apata is varied and changes depending on the time of year, which is one of the aspects he loves about it.

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"Over autumn I'm running the fruit maturity monitoring programme where we assess fruit samples in our on-site lab to plan our harvest flow and to allow us to pick fruit at optimal
maturity. In winter I'm mainly involved in season reviews where we assess the entirety of the last year looking for areas we could improve. In spring I do a lot of grower visits where I provide on-orchard advice as well as formulating our spray programme."

Through summer Craig's focus is on pest monitoring and crop estimates, before they come back around into harvest again.

"Over this time I also run a number of field days, discussion groups, newsletters, and presentations for our growers where I either present or use specialists as guest speakers, as well as visiting our growers on orchard."

Runnerup in the Young Fruit Grower of the Year was Andrew Kearney, orchard operations and development assistant manager for T&G Pipfruit in Hawke's Bay.

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