Heavitree Fruit Farm rebuilding after fire and floods

Stephen and Valerie Newman at their Waerenga-a-Hika orchard Heavifruit Fruit Farms where they grow apples, citrus and some stone fruit. Picture by Liam Clayton

A devastating fire and the February floods have tested the Newman family over the past couple of years but with their new H1 packhouse up and running and the prices looking good for their citrus, they are hoping for happier, less stressful days ahead.

On October 8 2021, fire engulfed the 900 sq m packhouse at Heavitree Fruit Farm in Waerenga-a-Hika, burning it to the ground in around six hours. Every fire appliance in the area attended. They used the adjacent Kaiaponi Farms system, pumping water from the Waipaoa River.

Stephen, Valerie and their son Scott were frightened the fire was going to spread to the family home next door but fortunately it escaped with moderate damage to the paintwork and singed trees in the yard.

Heavitree Fruit Farm is a family business which has been run by Stephen and Valerie for around 35 years. Before the fire they packed all their own fruit and suddenly had to find other packhouses.

They used a number of packhouses including Riverway, Riverland, JPR, Gpak and Zeafuit depending on what fruit they were packing. The packing was outsourced for two seasons while they began planning for the rebuild.

Now the Newmans have embarked on their next chapter, with a new 1500 square metre purpose-built packhouse.

H1 packhouse was built by Kiwispan and measures 27 metres by 45 metres. It has a Compac two-lane sizer which was purchased locally, secondhand. The build took around eight months with delays due to a shortage of steel and building materials.

Heavifruit Fruit Farms has seven hectares in Waerenga-a-Hika which grows citrus (Miho, Kiwano, Afourer, Navels and Valencia varieties), apples (Royal Gala, Granny Smith and NZ Rose) and some stone fruit including peaches and nectarines. They have another bigger orchard in Te Karaka (15 hectares) which was damaged in the floods.

“We think it will take several years to fully recover from February’s floods and we are still repairing two houses there that were damaged at Te Karaka,” Stephen says.

At the moment they are processing Valencia oranges from the Te Karaka orchard and while Stephen says the quality isn’t quite as good as it was pre-floods, he is pretty happy with the crop.

“We’re getting a good percentage of the premium tag one fruit,” he says.

Stephen and Valerie’s son Scott and his wife Laura recently bought another orchard nearby where they grow tangelos, oranges, limes and encore mandarins. They are loving the convenience of using the new H1 packhouse to process their fruit.

As well as the orchard and packhouse businesses, the Newmans are founding members of the Gisborne Farmers’ Market where they sell coffee and fruit. They enjoy the social side of the market where they get to talk to their customers and get feedback on the quality of the fruit they sell there.

It is early days but they are already packing fruit for other growers and would like to expand this side of the business. The goal is for the packhouse to work as efficiently as possible and Stephen and Scott welcome local growers to come and have a look around. They’re happy to show them the operation.

H1 packhouse is run as a separate entity from the orchard business and has been operating for around five months.

They have an excellent relationship with NZ marketers and are small enough and nimble enough to contract pack for growers with smaller quantities.

“We are very competitive with our prices and do a full packing and marketing programme for our growers,” Stephen says.

“We’re looking for more growers to join us and we’re hoping they will be attracted by the good prices we can get them for their fruit.

“The prospect for growing citrus and apples in our region is looking very positive with the citrus industry in good heart at the moment. Long may that continue.”

The Newmans are grateful to the local firefighters and the Gisborne business community for all of their help and support through what was a traumatic event.