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.
New Zealand Avocado chief executive Brad Siebert says the good news was that Australia was able to take a significant portion of the export crop along with new markets in North America and existing ones in Asia.
This meant that growers who had a reasonable packout were rewarded with some reasonable returns, he says.
“I say reasonable because the returns are shy from the highs of number of years ago,” Siebert told Rural News.
“We still struggled with packouts due to several weather events - not as extreme as cyclone Gabrielle, but which really downgraded the fruit. The average industry packout is around 50% - but remember this is an average and some growers have been below 35% due mainly to the effects of Gabrielle while other have packout rates of between 80% and 90%,” he says.
Siebert says they would like to see the industry average up around the 60 to 70% mark which it was in the past. But he says to get this, all the stars must align and that includes have good crop protection and kind weather.
He says they were hoping for what he called ‘cleaner fruit’ meaning undamaged but notes that Cyclone Tam, which struck over Easter, resulted in fruit being affected by the wind causing some cosmetic damage to fruit in especially in Northland. He says this will see some fruit downgraded.
While for some months Northland was facing a severe drought, in the last few weeks it’s been hit with heavy rain which has resulted in water lying in orchards. Siebert says the avocado is a shallow rooted tree and unless the water drains away quickly it can affect tree health.
“The trees that aren’t well drained just sulk and the water has the potential to cause long term tree health, so growers must actively manage that. As an industry we are just trying to support them as best we can with resources and helping them to manage the cleanup,” he says.
Weather Woes
Reflecting on last season, Brad Siebert says it was something of a relief to see growers who had export crops being rewarded with reasonable returns. He says for the sector it validated the discussions that were held with lenders and banks around the specific climatic reasons that saw a drop in returns.
“But we are now able to show that when the weather plays its part, the industry is able to rebound from those weather impacts and sell fruit at value in our key markets,” he says.
While things are looking up for the coming 2025/26 season, for some growers the problems are far from over.
They have had negative cash flows for the past two years due to cyclone Gabrielle and they are being severely challenged to remain in business even with the better returns of the past season.
In horticulture we live in a world of biology, says Siebert noting there are things that growers can and can’t control. He points to tariffs, market access and weather and things that growers can’t control.
