Big pick provides jobs aplenty

Nukumai Kingi and other Orangewood pickers begin harvesting kiwifruit in the Bay of Islands. Photo/Orangewood

Orangewood Ltd is one of the major players in the Northland kiwifruit industry, managing orchards totalling about 50ha in the Bay of Islands and operating a Kerikeri packhouse which also handles fruit from orchards where the company does not have a management role.

Managing director Carl Muller said Orangewood was expected to pack just over a million trays of kiwifruit this season.

The firm has a permanent staff of about 55. With the harvest beginning, about 150 are now on the payroll.

A nightshift will start operating in the packhouse as the harvest hots up over the next six or seven weeks, bumping staff numbers up to about 220, and at the peak of the harvest Orangewood could employ up to 320 people including about 20 Recognised Seasonal Employer workers from Vanuatu, although Mr Muller said the company had a "pro-local" employment policy.

Prolonged rain could have a big impact during harvesting and Orangewood needed to have procedures ready to minimise the effects of wet weather.

Mr Muller said Zespri paid a premium for early fruit so testing had started last month with samples from all orchards sent for analysis at an independent laboratory contracted to Zespri at Katikati near Tauranga.

"We start picking and packing when we get clearance," he said.

John McIntosh, who manages Huanui Orchards' 14ha kiwifruit division at Glenbervie, near Whangarei, and also owns a 4ha orchard producing kiwifruit and other fruit, said grower-owned Zespri had a very thorough auditing system to ensure export fruit met high health and food safety standards.

Mr McIntosh praised Zespri's orchard management system which he credited toward New Zealand gaining a reputable position in the global kiwifruit market.