Three generations in veg growing, with steady demand today.

Pukekohe veggie grower Allan Fong says partnering with meal kit service HelloFresh “absolutely” provides stability in a fluctuating market and helps his business establish new product lines.

“I’ve been with HelloFresh since year dot, they were one of the very few companies that came in and offered contracts in fairly solid volumes,” says Fong, whose family has been growing vegetables in Pukekohe since the mid-1950s, and is behind the popular retail brand The Fresh Grower.

The growing and selling of vegetables is naturally subject to multiple variables, not least of which is the vagaries of consumer preferences. But by working with HelloFresh, Allan and the third generation of vegetable-growing Fongs – who now run the majority of the enterprise – have a steady demand on which to base their business.

“It gives us the ability to plan as well. And we can try to reduce wastage if we can match our production with their projections on demand,” says Fong. “It’s quite different to our normal selling regime.”

Allan’s grandfather and father came to New Zealand from an area around Kaiping (historically romanised as Hoiping), in Guangdong, China, prior to the second world war. They worked as labourers in market gardens in Auckland and Panmure before helping form a vegetable farm cooperative in Pukekohe with various relatives.

“I think our story is not unlike many others from different places, who congregate in the same area with cousins and relatives and what have you. So the Fongs in Pukekohe are virtually all related. Most of us come from the same village, actually!”

That original cooperative evolved over the years and branched out. “And we became one of those branches,” says Fong, whose nephew is now the CEO of The Fresh Grower.

The business traditionally focused on staples like cabbage, onions and potatoes.

“But we found that we were probably getting too small to compete with the larger enterprises out there, so we branched out and we specialised. We chose a lot of niche crops that either weren’t done to a big degree, or weren’t done at all,” says Fong.

“Some of those were the baby cos lettuces, which we started and we branded those. And another one was a broccolini equivalent. They were our first two forays into niche crops which took a while to take off but are now well established.

“With things like that, one of the levers that actually helped us was companies like HelloFresh, because they anchor it for us. They really help us cement [new products] and that was very ideal.”

He says the popularity of meal kits, and the variety of food they offer, has helped consumer tastes evolve.

“I think there has been quite a shift in the last 10 years. People [have access] to stuff that they would have never think of buying. I think it’s been really educational for a lot of people.”

He cites the meal kit portioning of condiments (and vegetables, of course), as a way for consumers to try a new type of cuisine without the commitment of purchasing a large amount of ingredients that might otherwise languish in the pantry.

“They’ve portioned it all out, so you just come in and cook your Italian or your Chinese or your Spanish, and you use it all up. They’ve given you just enough condiments, garnishes and sauces. That helps people like us, absolutely, because we could not do that on our own – we don’t have the resources.”

The Fresh Grower has built upon that evolution in taste and continued to diversify its wares, with HelloFresh’s help.

“They especially help with new product development. Getting something new onto the market takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of confidence from our retailers to stock it,” says Fong.

“A key example is the baby salad turnips that we sell to HelloFresh. The little white salad turnip [has] been difficult for us to commercialise anywhere else. They’re the only ones that take it at the moment, our next step is to try and get it out there more. But because they use it in their recipes, that means a constant supply, week in, week out. So that is an absolute advantage.”

Fong says another advantage of being part of HelloFresh’s meal kits is the people that use them becoming familiar with The Fresh Grower.

With 87% of Kiwis saying it’s important to buy New Zealand-made or locally sourced food (UMR 2024), The Fresh Grower and HelloFresh are giving New Zealanders what they want. And with 98% of HelloFresh produce sourced locally, growers like the Fongs gain certainty while meals stay Kiwi to their core.

Learn more about HelloFresh’s commitment to local growers at hellofresh.co.nz.