Robbie and Karen Ellison have spent most of their lives in the kiwifruit heartland of Te Puke and are concerned at the lack of young people entering the industry. ROSALIE SMITH reports.
Where will the next generation of kiwifruit growers come from? Robbie Ellison of Te Puke considers himself a young
kiwifruit orchard owner - he's 45.
It's an indication of the high proportion of middle-aged and older growers and it concerns him there is no easy pathway to orchard ownership for young people.
He and wife Karen accumulated capital by leasing an orchard but today post-harvest operators are keen to lease orchards to ensure throughput. Because the operators gain a margin throughout the packing and coolstore process they can offer better terms than any private individual.
However, the Tauranga Fruitgrowers Association is investigating the possibility of setting up a scheme allowing young people to lease an orchard in stages while still receiving a proportion of their wages.
Tauranga president Les Smith and his son, Michael, plan to try it. Michael will lease a fifth of the orchard in the first year and receive four-fifths of his wages, lease two-fifths in the second year while being paid three-fifths of his wages and so on.
The rising cost of bare horticultural land and producing kiwifruit orchards makes it even more difficult for young people to become owners.
"This is a familiar story across all New Zealand farming sectors," Ellison said. "But it is not only family farms that are under threat. Small family businesses are also under pressure from the large corporates. And it seems to be a worldwide problem."
Encroaching suburbs is another common concern for growers. Horticultural land has been swallowed in great gulps in the Western Bay of Plenty, as it has in Auckland.
More people living close to orchards has already led to problems, especially related to sprays though the kiwifruit industry now uses mostly soft, non-toxic chemicals. But being awakened by the sound of helicopters and huge fan motors in the small hours as growers fight off frosty mornings is not good for neighbourly relations. Mulching mowers and sprayers can also lead to complaints.
Much of the orchard work is now done by teams of itinerant workers which leaves fewer positions for individuals to gain experience in year-round management.
Bryan Leach, of the representative NZ Kiwifruit Growers, said growers in several kiwifruit regions including the Bay of Plenty, Northland and Hawkes Bay were working towards setting up training schemes, either in conjunction with local polytechs, universities or the Horticulture Industry Training Organisation.
Ellison regards himself as a professional grower. He has a horticultural science degree and has steadily increased his orchard to today's 11.5 canopy hectares, 10ha of conventional green fruit and 1.5ha of the newer gold variety.
Along the way he married Karen, daughter of long-time Te Puke grower John Kramer. The couple purchased half the Kramer family orchard in 1987. In 1992 they bought an orchard east of Te Puke, over the years increasing its production and their total orchard area.
Family life has centred on the kiwifruit industry. For the past 23 years Karen has worked in the servicing sector, managing the movement of fruit from coolstore to wharf, first for exporters, then for the Kiwifruit Marketing Board and now for coolstore and packhouse Satara, previously known as Baypak.
In past years all fruit that passed the grade standards was exported even though growers recognised there was taste variability. Now it is known that taste directly relates to high dry matter content, the Taste Zespri programme offers a premium for fruit with high dry matter.
Zespri chief executive Tony Marks said good tasting fruit accelerated sales in the current marketing season with customers coming back for more.
But the growers producing this premium fruit have yet to directly benefit. Zespri pays a dozen suppliers - groups of post-harvest facilities which pay growers. Logistics mean that not all Taste Zespri fruit ends up in high-priced markets so most suppliers share the premium among their growers. Ellison looks to the day when he is directly rewarded for producing top-quality fruit.
This is an example of the difficulty of reflecting market signals in producers' returns, a problem shared by other single desk marketing organisations. As soon as there are multiple products, whether it be varieties of apples or processed dairy products, questions arise over fair and equitable sharing of the cake.
Paying on market return or with regard to other considerations is an issue now the kiwifruit industry has green, gold and organic fruit.
Organic growers this year gained a subsidy for their fruit of 25 cents a tray, the rationale being that too low a return would persuade organic growers to graft back to green even though the industry needed to retain its organic foothold in the market.
Many growers, especially those growing the gold fruit that gains a higher price and sells readily in the high-priced Japanese market, want the market to dictate the return. Gold growers are receiving less than the market pays because of extra promotional spending to launch the fruit.
On the other hand, green growers paid for the research that developed the new variety. But gold growers were prepared to take the risk of growing gold and should reap the benefits or suffer the consequences should gold fruit prove to be a flop.
So the arguments continue and the industry plans a review of the whole pool system.
Ellison appreciated the work done by Zespri on food safety. "Retailers are demanding details of every step of the production and supply chain," he said.
"We will have to fully document our management, with the paper trail continuing right through packing, storing, shipping, till it reaches the consumer.
"Zespri has been responsible in putting systems into place to satisfy market demands.
"I believe they have also kept up the innovation impetus, though not all growers agree. They introduced Kiwi Green, a programme that greatly reduced the number of toxic sprays applied; they introduced gold fruit to the market; they eventually got behind marketing organic fruit; and they have moved to improve fruit consistency and taste.
"But since they restructured the onshore supply system they have put the post-harvest sector between the grower and the marketer. Growers perceive Zespri has lost touch with them."
Efforts are being made to remedy the situation and most growers still support the single entry to the market.
"I would be very disappointed if we lost it. We are a small player a long way from the market. We must have a co-ordinated approach especially when supply exceeds demand," Ellison said.
Facts:
Export value: $578 million
Crop size: 65 million trays
Key markets: Europe, Japan, North America
Number of growers: 1600
Major growing areas: Bay of Plenty, Nelson
Area planted: 11,533ha
Further reading:
nzherald.co.nz/primemovers
Robbie and Karen Ellison have spent most of their lives in the kiwifruit heartland of Te Puke and are concerned at the lack of young people entering the industry. ROSALIE SMITH reports.
Where will the next generation of kiwifruit growers come from? Robbie Ellison of Te Puke considers himself a young
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