Undercover crops the way to beat adverse weather?

Richard Burke, who until recently was chief executive of LeaderBrand, says given the unpredictable nature of weather, and lower returns, growers simply can’t afford to lose a crop.

This is one of the reasons LeaderBrand invested in a 10.7ha greenhouse operation at their site near Gisborne. Here a range of vegetables, mainly salad crops, are grown under cover as part of plan to improve the number of crops that can be produced annually and to protect them from adverse weather.

The LeaderBrand operation is unique and Burke admits the company is still learning about how to run this operation to maintain maximum efficiency. Earlier this year the company began using a new electric harvester machine and self-propelled cargo platforms to operate in its new mega greenhouse in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint.

"We got some good insights about fertiliser and chemical use as well as recycling the water. The environmental side of it has exceeded out early expectations, but when you get in that environment where you can control everything, you only get good outcomes when you do things absolutely correct. But if you don't get it right, there are problems," he say.

Burke says there is huge potential in such an operation.

As regards the present season, Burke says they have had one of the best growing seasons for about the last three years. He says spring has been early and kind and the outlook is for a good growing season. The kind weather has resulted in good quality crop volumes which in turn has seen lower vegetable prices for the consumer.

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"So, consumers hopefully feel like they are winning but that's put a lot of pressure on a lot of growing businesses. Although they have probably had really good crops and good volumes, their outcomes are probably not all that sharp, but again, it's more about us having to learn to produce at these values rather than expect the prices to be high," he says.