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.
