New Summerfruit NZ CEO
Dean Smith has been in the role of CEO of Summerfruit NZ for about four months, having succeeded Kate Hellstrom at the end of September.
Industry body Summerfruit NZ says it’s had a “magnificent response” to the call for help from locals with this season’s harvest.
“With the pandemic closing borders to international backpackers and RSE workers, it was feared that there would be a shortage of people keen on moving to the regions to supplement local workers at harvest time,” Richard Palmer, Summerfruit NZ’s chief executive says.
Palmer says the industry body has collaborated with Ministry of Social Development, Ministry for Primary Industries, other industry organisations, councils and HortNZ to raise public awareness of the shortage.
He says New Zealanders have heard the call and responded in greater numbers than hoped for.
“The response overall across the summerfruit regions of Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough and Central Otago has been fantastic and many growers and packers have received far more applications than they would normally expect at this time of year.”
However, Palmer says there are still pockets of orchards that are having difficulty in attracting sufficient numbers of people.
“Mother Nature dictates when the season starts. This year it has been quite changeable and now looks to be three to five days ahead of 2019. That means the Cromwell Basin growers, where many export cherry orchards can be found, expect to start picking around 8-9 December.”
The cherry harvest usually lasts around six weeks, straddling Christmas and New Year, and is in full swing in January, with other summerfruit crops increasing in volume around then.
“Keeping people on board for the full cherry crop and then the other summerfruit crops is a major concern,” Palmer says.
“In the past, students work through to mid to late January and then international backpackers have filled their roles. We need to make sure the incentives are there to keep people employed as long as the work is available.”
Fieldays 2025 opens this week with organisers saying the theme, 'Your Place', highlights the impact the event has on agriculture both in the Southern Hemisphere and across the globe.
Sam Carter, assistant manager for T&G's Pakowhai Sector, has been named the Hawke's Bay 2025 Young Grower of the Year.
The CEO of Apples and Pears NZ, Karen Morrish, says the strategic focus of her organisation is to improve grower returns.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.
OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).
OPINION: The Greens aren’t serious people when it comes to the economy, so let’s not spend too much on their…
OPINION: PM Chris Luxon is getting pinged lately for rolling out the old 'we're still a new government' line when…