| 35 Meiros Orchard REGIONAL Accountants & business advisers 06 876 8124 admin@pkfcs.co.nz. pkfcs.co.nz PKF Carr & Stanton are proud to support Meiros Orchard Transforming visions into value and driving business success. We’re right there with you. We keep you growing We’re local, we care. proudly locally owned and operated Power Farming Hawke’s Bay | 06 879 9998 Mt Erin Packhouse - proud packers of Meiros Orchard Apples sales@megexports.co.nz 06 651 1335 www.mterinapples.co.nz Partner with Mt Erin to elevate your fruit performance. Enjoy exceptional outturns with precision handling from coolstore to container. Our expert team ensures your fruit achieves premium results. Your One Stop Farm Gear Shop WOF & Repairs | Servicing | Tyres | ATV & UTV Repairs and Servicing | Light Engineering farmgearhb.co.nz 021 249 4673 allan@farmgearhb.co.nz T T Karen Phelps Opportunity comes from adversity With land to redevelop, the Wilsons seized the opportunity to plant the first commercial blocks of a brand-new apple variety. For Craig and Gill Wilson apple growing has always been about controlling what you can. Meiros Orchard in the Dartmoor Valley, which the Wilsons established in 1993 after returning from several years abroad, has weathered no small amount of adversity. Cyclone Gabrielle, which struck the region around three years ago, removed roughly half of Meiros Orchard’s trees on its 50-hectare operation near Puketapu, Hawke’s Bay, overnight. It was heartbreaking losing our orchards, but we are moving forward,” says Craig. The cyclone hit just as redevelopment work had been completed, leaving swathes of land buried under silt, with some older blocks beyond economic recovery. Since then, Meiros Orchard has replanted six hectares and is now working through a staged four-year process, planting four hectares annually. There has been a silver lining in the devastation. With land to redevelop, the Wilsons seized the opportunity to plant the first commercial blocks of a brand-new apple variety they have acquired the rights to with Craig’s brother Des and his wife Lesley. Bred locally by Andrew McKenzie and Wendy Cashmore in partnership with Venture Fruits, it is a late-season red apple with a harvest date around the beginning of April, positioning it well for the lucrative Asian market. The variety has not yet been formally named as it is that new. “The flavour profile is exceptional, with the right balance of acid and sweetness,” says Craig. “It has good storage capability and it’s a block red apple with about 80 to 90 per cent colour.” This season 17 hectares of the new variety are being planted across three family orchards (DN & LR Wilson Orchards, Meiros Orchard and Kilhaven Orchard) totalling around 50,000 trees in total planted at 4,400 stems to the hectare using twin-stem systems in a more intensive configuration than traditional plantings. The first commercial harvest is expected in two years. “We wanted to find a variety that we could control ourselves,” says Craig. “We want to keep it a really grower-focused apple, farming it out to other like-minded orchardists in Hawke’s Bay that can deliver it to Mt Erin. It’s about keeping it in house as much as possible and keeping the value of the fruit up.” Mt Erin Group was formed in 2012 when a number of growers purchased a rundown packhouse together. It now serves as the packing and cool store facility for its seven member growers while its marketing arm operates as a not-for-profit, returning all proceeds to the growers. Last year alone, it completed a $6 million build on its fresh apple storage and cool store infrastructure and installed Hawk robotic packing to automate the packing line. “It’s all about controlling our own destiny,” says Craig. “Mt Erin packs three product lines — Class 1, Class 1.5, and Class 2 — and also handles stone fruit at the start of the season, as well as taking on packing for orchards outside the membership. Everything is driven to get as much return back to the orchard gate as possible.” The next generation is increasingly part of that picture. Craig’s son Alistair has stepped into the role of orchard manager, handling the day-to-day running of the operation and sonin-law Lewis Middleton is orchard foreman.
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