Paengaroa company wins regional supreme award

Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards supreme winners Baygold general manager Leighton Oats (right) and Coach Road Orchard orchard manager Matt Nelson. Photo / Andrew Warner

A Paengaroa-based kiwifruit operation took out the supreme title at the 2016 Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards on Friday night.

Baygold Limited, a large-scale kiwifruit operation which is owned by shareholders and directors who make up equity partnership Baygold Joint Venture partnership, also collected the Hill Laboratories Harvest Award, CB Norwood Distributors Agri-Business Management Award and a Bay of Plenty Regional Council award.

Judges described Baygold Ltd as a resilient and well-governed business that "survived Psa by demonstrating excellence and innovation".

Baygold owns two Te Puke orchards totalling just over 100ha - Coach Road Orchard and La Vigna - and expects to harvest 1.4 million trays of G3 kiwifruit this season.

This is a massive increase on the 30,000 trays harvested in 2013 when the kiwifruit industry was hit by the devastating vine disease, Psa-V.

Other winners in the 2016 Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards were:

Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award, Water-Force Integrated Management Award, Bay of Plenty Regional Council: Shane and June Birchall, Daniel Birchall and Megan Schutt, Waionehu Farm Limited, Rotorua.

Zespri Kiwifruit Orchard Award, PGG Wrightson People in Agriculture Award, Farm Stewardship Award in partnership with the QEII National Trust and the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust: Peter and Marnie Anstis, Anstis Orchards I and II, Opotiki.

Massey University Innovation Award: Phillipa Wright and Stephen Kenna, KWKIWI Limited, Katikati.

LIC Dairy Farm Award: Gary and Debra Rowlands, GDR Farm Limited, Whakatane.