34 | EHC Orchard Management T T Richard Loader Keeping busy both sides of the vine Tom Heeney and Fee Edwards founded EHC Orchard Management in 2004 as an orchard management and machinery contracting business. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT T T to page 36 As both owner/growers and the managers of Kiwifruit orchards, Tom Heeney and his wife Fee Edwards walk the same paths as their clients and field managers, appreciating the challenges and opportunities of both sides of the vine. With a passion for Kiwifruit, Tom and Fee founded EHC Orchard Management in 2004 as an orchard management and machinery contracting business, operating in Te Puke, the heart of New Zealand’s Kiwifruit growing country. Twenty years later the business has grown to a sizeable operation and manages 550 hectares of Kiwifruit orchards, predominantly in the wider Te Puke region, looking after the interests of about 100 growers and harvesting 85,000 field bins each year. EHC Orchard’s clients range from mum and dad orchard owners right through to large corporates. “Te Puke is only a very small town but eighty percent of New Zealand’s Kiwifruit industry is in the greater Te Puke region,” says Tom. “We provide a one-stop-shop including all orchard services such as vine husbandry and day-to-day management. We offer our clients full machinery options including crop protection spraying and mowing, and we do all our own harvesting and transport to the clients preferred post-harvest facility. “We match-up our managers with orchards and so after spending all year looking after it and growing the crops they like to see the fruit going in the bin.” Tom says the introduction of the gold variety of Kiwifruit has closed the seasonal shoulders up and reduced the seasonal impact on the industry, providing staff with well-paid work 365 days of the year. “From harvest we go straight into winter pruning. There will be a gap for about ten days before going into our Spring/Summer work. Kiwifruit is just a vigorous weed really, so there’s a lot of time and money spent on controlling that vigour. “That work will take us right through to mid/ late February and then we start harvest in the middle of March, which goes through to middle of June.” Including twelve experienced field managers, and a sizeable machinery division, EHC Orchard Management employs a team of 55 full time staff, along with 300 staff supplied from subcontractors. That swells to between 400 - 500 in the peak season from October to late November, and reducing to about 350 by Christmas. “Many of the contract labour force come from the community, but they also travel from Rotorua and a lot come from Papamoa — so it’s all thirty minutes to an hour catchment. RSE workers and backpackers are definitely back in town post Covid, though we don’t use backpackers a lot and we haven’t gone down the RSE path. “We’ve always taken the approach that we would rather establish relationships with our sub-contractors, and in general they do look after us. For many of them we are their business.” About three years ago a conscious decision was made not to grow EHC Orchard Management beyond what it was at that time, a decision that Tom says was right then, and now. “We have a content and happy team, and the processes we have established work very well. We knew we could deliver a high-quality service at the level we were, so why get bigger for the sake of it, and put quality at risk. PUMP | IRRIGATION | DAIRY | EFFLUENT DESIGN • SUPPLY • INSTALL THINKWATER BAY OF PLENTY P: 07 573 8747 W: www.thinkwaterbop.co.nz E: bayofplenty@thinkwater.co.nz BAY OF PLENTY 07
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