MyFarm to grow kiwifruit with $5m orchard alliance

Andrew Watters says MyFarm will grow the green kiwifruit varieties.

New Zealand farm investment company MyFarm, which up until now has specialised in the pastoral sector, has weighed into kiwifruit with the launch of a $5 million orchard syndicate.

The syndicate, Bay Kiwifruit Limited Partnership (BKLP), plans to buy up to 21 canopy hectares of premium Bay of Plenty orchard land with a long-term plan to convert green, Hayward variety, orchards to new kiwifruit varieties as they are released by single desk seller Zespri.

Interestingly, MyFarm wants to stick with green varieties and not gold, which has been taking centre stage with the strong performance of the Psa-tolerant variety Gold3, known commercially as Sungold.

"Kiwifruit orchards are quite highly priced on a per hectare basis and are also reasonably priced relative to history," MyFarm director Andrew Watters said.

"Our feeling is that the gold variety is at the top of the market, so there is the risk of buying gold and destroying value," he said.

"We know that Zespri has a number of new green varieties with potential to be licensed out, so we will look at those when they come out."

MyFarm has partnered with Bay of Plenty orchard management company Gro-Plus to launch BKLP. GroPlus will source and manage the orchards purchased by BKLP.

Gro-Plus is owned by Bay of Plenty kiwifruit entrepreneur and investor Steve Saunders, who also sits on the MyFarm board.

Watters said the success of the kiwifruit industry since the establishment of Zespri as a single desk exporter made it a compelling proposition.

MyFarm has 47 dairy farms and seven sheep and beef farms with an asset value of $550 million under management.

"When you compare kiwifruit to our traditional land-based investments in dairy and sheep and beef it comes out on top for low costs of production, high operating profit margins and the ability to generate cash returns," Watters said.

The syndicate intends to focus on buying properties in the prime kiwifruit growing areas around Tauranga and Te Puke with the lowest susceptibility to frost and hail damage.