Bremworth launches $6M expansion of cyclone-damaged Napier plant
Listed carpet manufacturer, Bremworth is undertaking a $6 million expansion at its Napier plant more than two years after the site was heavily damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle.
One of the badly hit kiwifruit orchards in Hawke's Bay was the 40 hectare covered block owned by the Bay of Plenty based, Ngai Tukairangi Trust.
At the heart of the floods, trust chair Ratahi Cross had a narrow escape from drowning, as the rapidly rising floodwaters rose around him.
Most of the kiwifruit orchard had water through it and was badly damaged. But Cross is hopeful that they will be back to 80% production next year.
How to achieve this is something very dear to his heart. He says the conversations they are having at the moment is about how they recover the plants and bring them back to life.
"Kiwifruit is a very funny plant. It sulks and if it doesn't want to give you fruit for few year it won't," he told Hort News.
"So, what we have to do is encourage it to fruit next year and the year after. For us, it's about loving the plant. That may sound quite funny but Māori and growers generally believe that there is a connection between them and the plant itself," Cross explains.
"People believe plants don't think but we believe they do - so there becomes an attachment between the grower and their baby the plant."
Recovery for Māori is different to other orchardists, Cross claims.
He says they are not asking for much immediate help, but for help in the long haul.
He says Māori have no option but to stay on their land and make sure it is viable for four of five generations in the future.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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