The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Hawke's Bay labour shortage hinders pipfruit season

By Rose Harding
Hawkes Bay Today·
22 May, 2019 12:19 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Sector chairman Ben James said smaller growers who did not qualify for RSE labour found it especially hard during the labour shortage.

Sector chairman Ben James said smaller growers who did not qualify for RSE labour found it especially hard during the labour shortage.

Labour shortages took the edge off what was otherwise a good pipfruit season in Hawke's Bay.

Sector chairman Ben James said smaller growers who did not qualify for RSE labour found it especially hard.

Full employment in Hawke's Bay and a shortage of backpackers who found Hawke's Bay too expensive to live in while they worked did not help, he said.

Nor did problems with transferring holiday visas into work visas after a labour shortage was declared in late February. Workers wanting to renew their visas had to pay twice and could not work while their application was in the queue.

"This is not a good message to send to backpackers. We need to make Hawke's Bay financially attractive to them," James said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The rapid expansion of the apple industry in Hawke's Bay did not help the situation, he said.

The crop itself was down in volume because of smaller fruit caused by wet weather around Christmas and warm nights over the growing season.

Fruit was selling well at the moment with envy and pacific queen popular, especially in the expanding Asian market, he said

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Another concern for the industry was the amount of top-class growing soil disappearing under housing, James said.

"It's a concern for all growing industries in Hawke's Bay."

A warm, dry spring and summer in the Bay of Plenty cost Hawke's Bay kiwifruit growers their early crop premium this year.

Sector chairman Richard Pentreath said the Kiwistart premium was paid for early fruit which Hawke's Bay supplied most years.

Discover more

Comment: Valuing our migrant workers

23 May 11:30 PM

However, this year the dry weather in the Bay of Plenty meant fruit there matured early and took up the allowance for Kiwistart.

However, it was not all bad news as fruit left on the vine for longer had more dry matter and was bigger, he said.

Overall it was a good season for Hawke's Bay growers.

Labour was in good supply, the weather held for the picking season and yields were up on last year's figures of 1.66 million trays of Gold3 and 293,000 trays of the Hayward green variety.

This year those figures are 1.98 million trays of Gold3 and 187,000 of Hayward green. This shows that the Hayward green variety is being replaced by Gold3.

Market returns were also solid with $10.50/tray for gold fruit and $6/tray for green.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Pentreath said gold varieties made up 75 per cent of Hawke's Bay's planting.

The industry was growing in Hawke's Bay and now Gisborne was "coming into the picture", he said.

China is the biggest market for New Zealand fruit.

For stonefruit growers last season was not one of the better ones.

Sector spokesman Brian Fulford said wet weather at flowering and harvest time made for an "average" season with disease and quality problems.

Returns were on a par with last year but there was less fruit to sell.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Because the harvest is earlier than other fruit there was no problem with labour with plenty of RSE workers available.

Fulford said it was the second average season in a row after a "boomer" in 2017.

He said some stonefruit orchards were being replaced with apple trees because that industry was doing so well.

"Next year will be different."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

Premium
The Country

'They just keep coming': Illegal hunting causes frustration and fear on East Coast

The Country

Watch: CCTV shows moment drug-driver caused tractor to crash into homes

The Country

Te Puke incident: Person airlifted after serious injury


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

Premium
Premium
'They just keep coming': Illegal hunting causes frustration and fear on East Coast
The Country

'They just keep coming': Illegal hunting causes frustration and fear on East Coast

East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick highlights rising poaching concerns.

17 Jul 06:00 AM
Watch: CCTV shows moment drug-driver caused tractor to crash into homes
The Country

Watch: CCTV shows moment drug-driver caused tractor to crash into homes

17 Jul 03:49 AM
Te Puke incident: Person airlifted after serious injury
The Country

Te Puke incident: Person airlifted after serious injury

17 Jul 02:26 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP