Ōpōtiki grower wins 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award
Brett Wotton, an Eastern Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor, has won the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for his work to support lifting fruit quality across the industry.
OPINION: Sour taste Your old mate suggests the country’s struggling kiwifruit growers will find the latest pay increases to executives at Zespri very hard to swallow.
According to the kiwifruit marketer, the $10 million increase payments to employees - in a year when the kiwifruit marketer’s net profit fell by nearly 34% - is due to the company ‘keeping on top of its game’.
The kiwifruit exporter’s annual report for 2023 shows employee remuneration and benefits rose nearly 7% from $140.6m to $150.3m, while net profit after taxation fell to $238.7m from $361.5m in FY22.
Net profit before tax was $331.2m in FY23 compared to $505.1m the previous financial year.
It looks like chief executive Dan Mathieson got a pay rise.
The report shows the top earner in the company had a total remuneration and benefits range of $1.990m-$1.999m compared to $1.880m-$1.889m in FY22. All right for some!
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has launched an AI-powered digital assistant to help farmers using the B+LNZ Knowledge Hub to create tailored answers and resources for their farming businesses.
A tiny organism from the arid mountains of mainland Greece is facilitating a new way of growing healthier animals on farms across New Zealand.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.