A $300,000 new cool store and adjacent packaging facility at Delta Produce in Dargaville is the latest evidence of strong expansion in the Kaipara kumara industry. The cool store has been built in readiness for the kumara co-operative's planned move to exporting early next year. Delta Produce general manager David Jones saidKaipara kumara growers were supplying around 93 percent of the New Zealand kumara market and the industry had steadily expanded over the past two years due to good growing conditions. "The weather has been kind to us in regard to planting and harvesting and we are confident that next year's results will be even better," he said. Mr Jones said the industry was in its last three to four weeks of supply for the 2004 season. He added Delta was in the process of setting out its marketing plan for next year to include exporting the vegetable. He said the Delta packhouse was one of four packhouses throughout the district with the other three located at Awakino Pt, Turiwiri and Ruawai. Mr Jones said there were around 73 people on the payroll at Delta Produce and he was not prepared to divulge how much kumara was packed and sent to wholesalers because this was a trade secret but it was in the thousands of tonnes. He said the new cool storage had taken the producing of kumara to a whole new level. "Previously we would have the cartons sitting out in the shed where staff were working where it was fairly warm but now it can be stored in ideal conditions," he said. In order to keep the vegetable from becoming discoloured with too colder atmosphere or preventing sprouting from too warmer conditions it needed to be kept at around 13 degrees Celsius. The building foundations of the cool store and the packaging store were built by Kaipara construction firm Vuletich Construction and the addition of the actual cool store was built by Auckland-based horticultural construction firm Hortifresh. Mr Jones said the two stores had been built with a view to further expansion perhaps in a few years time.
