Kiwifruit rejects and analysis all in a day's work at Trevelyan

Kuldip Singh is a grader supervisor assistant - reject analysis - at Trevelyan's packhouse.

Rejected kiwifruit are inevitable — and it's Kuldip Singh's job to find out why.

Kuldip is in his 10th season working for Trevelyan's. While the packing season lasts three months, kiwifruit is his life. For the other nine months, he looks after an orchard on No 1 Rd.

He says working in the packhouse, there is never a shortage of interesting people. Kuldip came to New Zealand from India in 1989, and has lived in Te Puke for 10 years after spending time in Hastings and Auckland.

He was a grader at Trevelyan's for eight years, took on the role of line checking last year and this year moved into reject analysis.

"I look at why there is problem with it," he says.

"Because the grader takes [fruit] out, we check that fruit and whether they are doing the right job or not. If they are not doing the right job, my main role is to inform the supervisor who goes to that grader and can correct what's going wrong."

He likes the environment as a change from orchard work, and the packhouse is a friendly place.

"But you've got to do your job — no nobody's going to like you if you don't do your job."