Tauranga lab manager Phoebe Scherer crowned Young Grower of the Year
The 2025 Young Grower of the Year, Phoebe Scherer, says competing with other finalists felt more like being among friends.
Hailing from Tauranga, Scherer recently pitched her skills against eight contestants to take the title on the 20th anniversary of the event.
She will now go on to compete against six other regional winners in Horticulture New Zealand's national Young Grower of the Year competition, to be held in Christchurch in September.
Aged 29, Scherer grew up in Tauranga and gained a degree in biology and evolution at the University of Auckland before heading off on her OE.
On her return, she took a seasonal job "counting kiwifruit" with Fruition Horticulture while she applied for laboratory jobs.
"I was finding I was either underqualified or overqualified for roles I applied for," she says. "But then Fruition took a punt on me and offered me a full-time job as an assistant consultant."
"It was straight in at the deep end, and I loved it. The work involved so many things - feasibility planning for horticulture development, orchard profitability analysis, soil assessment, irrigation scheduling and a whole range of other things."
Scherer was subsequently promoted to become a horticultural consultant and worked with Fruition for six years until last year when she joined Apata, a post-harvest service provider for New Zealand kiwifruit and avocado growers.
“I really enjoy being able to collect data about what is going on in orchards and give growers information. I particularly like that you can make improvements in an orchard in such a short time period, just in a season, that helps growers to grow even better fruit," she says.
She adds that the sector offers tremendous opportunity for personal and professional growth.
“There is a lot of on-the-job training, but I have also been lucky enough to do a number of external courses too, such as the Value Chain Innovation programme with Rural Leaders, which really opened my eyes to how, as an industry, we create value," Scherer says.
2025 marked Scherer's first entry into the Young Grower competition. She says she really enjoyed it, despite competing in challenging weather conditions.
“All the competition modules were really challenging. I advise on a lot of different things for my job, so was familiar with the different topics but it’s hard doing it under very tight time pressure.
“The competition is so important for the development of the next generation of horticulturalists and to get people inspired. I had been considering entering it every year for the past five years but then thought ‘I could never do that’.
“This year was the last year I could enter and I am so glad I did – and thank you so much to the organising committee and to the sponsors.”
She says that in the future, she aims to buy her own home and continue to progress in her career.
“I want to continue working in the technical space, helping people to grow better fruit systems. I feel very fortunate to have been able to stay in the Bay of Plenty. I think a lot of people who want to live here find their way into horticulture and find they love it.
“For anyone thinking about a career step, I’d say horticulture is not just about picking and packing. There are so many different roles in the sector and in supporting industries – just come and give it a go.”
The runner up was Grace Lowery, a horticulture specialist at Ballance Agri-Nutrients, and third place went to Levi Belcher, a Waikato kiwifruit orchard manager.
