Hawke's Bay teen helps rural families access affordable school uniforms
Hawke's Bay teenage entrepreneur Hugo Moffett is helping the rural community access cheaper school uniforms, all without leaving their homes.
Wattie’s says the latest tomato harvest season has seen some of the highest yielding tomato paddocks in the company’s 50-year history.
This season, Wattie’s says it hit a new record with a crop of 140 metric tons per hectare, the equivalent of 5.6kg per plant.
It makes for a 5% increase on the highest yield previously achieved and is 40% higher than Wattie’s 5-year average yield.
Twenty years ago, the 5-year average tomato harvest was 80 metric tons per hectare.
The tomato harvest season started in mid-February and since then has been going 24 hours a day. Over that time, Wattie’s harvested and processed 39,000 metric tons of field tomatoes.
Wattie’s managing director Neil Heffer says that collectively the company’s Hawke’s Bay tomato growers have contributed to a ‘bumper season’.
“Our harvest team have worked extremely hard to keep the machinery operating through several wet weather spells to maximise our yield from each tomato crop. We couldn’t be prouder of the team in delivering the key ingredient to many of our Wattie’s products,” Heffer says.
“We are fortunate to have a local family helping with the tomato harvest, a family that has done so for more than two decades. They operate the harvesters and tractors right through the harvest season, approximately 70 days, day and night and we are extremely grateful for their support again this year.”
Wattie’s tomatoes are used in products like tomato paste as well as peeled, diced and canned tomato products. Others are put through a tomato evaporator and turned into condensed tomato paste which is then used in soups, baked beans, and tinned spaghetti.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has joined the debate around the proposed sale of Fonterra’s consumer and related businesses, demanding answers from the co-operative around its milk supply deal with the buyer, Lactalis.
The ACT Party says media reports that global dairy giant Nestle has withdrawn from the Dairy Methane Action Alliance shows why New Zealand needs to rethink its approach to climate.
If there was a silver lining in the tragedy that was Cyclone Gabrielle, for New Zealand Young Grower of the Year, Grace Fulford, it was the tremendous sense of community and seeing first-hand what good leadership looks like.
New research could help farmers prepare for a future where summer rainfall is increasingly unpredictable and where drought risk is rising, no matter what.
The first calves of a new crossbred dairy-beef offering are now on the ground at a Pamu (Landcorp) farm near Taupo.
Spinach is NZ's favourite leafy green, according to the Department of Statistics.
OPINION: Ageing lefty Chris Trotter reckons that the decision to delay recognition of Palestinian statehood is more than just a fit…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly recently met someone at a BBQ who works at a big consulting firm who spent…