Tough going for horticulture

He cites the various impacts of Covid-19, which includes labour shortages, rising input costs and logistics as being problem areas.

O'Donnell says while labour costs are high, so are chemical costs and the cost of setting up new orchards. Rockit put in 200 hectares of new plantings last year and plans to do the same this year - mainly in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne where the apples mature early and provide an opportunity to get fruit into market ahead of the main crop.

However, O'Donnell says with plantings increasing, so is the race on for greater automation. He says the company will be installing more automation in the off-season.

"As we grow 40% more fruit year on year it's hard to get 40% more staff so automation has to be the option," he told Rural News.

Not unexpectedly, Covid - in particular the arrival of Omicron - has brought new challenges and required new systems to handle harvesting, packing and marketing. O'Donnell says a lot of careful planning has to go into how best to do this and ensure the safety of staff and the viability of the business.

"There are a lot of requirements around vaccinations and non-vaccination and in order to access RSE workers, whom we need, they have to be in vaccinated bubbles. So, there is a lot of planning going on to ensure we achieve that and keep workers safe as promised."

O'Donnell says while all staff employed in packhouses or visiting these facilities have to be double vaccinated, staff working in orchards don't have to be because it is outside. He says all meetings of staff employed in orchards also have to be held outside. He says it's quite a task making sure are where they should be at all times.

O'Donnell says in terms of recruiting staff they are ahead of where they were last year.

"What is different is that we are actually seeing a higher quality of person looking for orchard work," he told Rural News.

"I suspect there are a lot of people forced out of vaccinate mandate jobs and are available to pick in orchards. They could be teachers and nurses and people like that who wouldn't normally be available for this type of work."

Like some other primary sector companies, the initial RATs that Rockit ordered were 'diverted' and O'Donnell says that nearly spelt disaster for the company. However, it had made contingency plans. He says, quite by chance, they were able to get some other RATs and have a larger order coming in March, which he hopes will not be grabbed by the Government.

Overall, O'Donnell is positive about the future and says, in the case of his company, there is strong demand for a premium product. He says the big worry is inflation in markets such as China, which could impact on returns to growers.

He says the apple sector is going to have to develop partnerships with China, like Zepri and Fonterra have.

"The days of China being happy with global companies coming in and selling product and leaving probably won't be maintainable long term."