James Blair Named 2026 Young Grower National Champion
James Blair, an agronomist for AS Wilcox and the Pukekohe regional champion, has won the 2026 Young Grower national title.
Goodman is the assistant orchard manager at Central Orchard Management and packing manager at CentralPac.
Last week, she pitched her skills against four contestants to take the title at Cromwell.
She will now go on to compete against six other regional winners in the Young Grower of the Year final competition in Christchurch in September.
Goodman, age 26, was raised on a beef and dairy farm in England and developed a passion for agriculture early.
After moving to New Zealand, she transitioned from cattle and crops to cherries, discovering a love for horticulture.
“I literally fell into it when I was a backpacker in Wanaka,” Goodman says. “My working visa was about to expire, it was post-Covid and the industry was crying out for workers.”
She took up one of the Government’s Supplementary Seasonal Employer (SSE) visas and started work in a cherry orchard in Tarras.
“I just loved it, the outdoors work and the passion and leadership in the industry. I have been here ever since,” she says.
Goodman has now been working in the industry for five years, managing teams in both orchard and packhouse operations.
She says she entered the Young Grower competition to develop her technical skills, build connections with like-minded professionals and challenge herself.
“It was a great experience completing seven modules across the day along with two practical components, and a speech in the evening,” she says. “The big one for me was pruning a tree in front of two big names in the field.”
Goodman, who manages a team of 12 RSE workers as well as being a manager in the packhouse, says she loves the outdoor work and the passion and leadership in the industry.
“One of the best things is teaching the team how to do their job, and seeing the passion develop as they learn and understand things like the physiology of a tree. That really fuels me.”
Runners up were Jared Loewen from Roxburgh, who is currently a redeveloping his family’s orchard, Stone House Gardens, to improve productivity and sustainability; and Mackenzie Maaka from Cromwell who is currently studying Level 4 Horticultural Fruit Production at polytechnic.
