| 73 T T Russell Fedric Green shoots appearing for industry The Te Kopuru orchard covers 54 hectares and two-thirds is now planted after it was established four years ago. Lynwood Avocado Nursery PRODUCTION The New Zealand avocado industry is at the cutting edge globally due to the enquiring Kiwi mind and the need to do things better, Lynwood Avocado Nursery director Steven Wade says. A specialist avocado nursery, Lynwood has a long history of producing healthy, pestfree, disease-free, certified avocado trees for both New Zealand and international markets. Based in Whangarei, the business largely involves producing clonal root stock to grow trees from to on-sell to avocado growers; however, it also has orchard operations, including a small amount of citrus as well as avocado, and more recently, dragon fruit. The business started in 1983 with the first four hectares of avocado orchard being planted in the rich volcanic soils of Maunu, just west of Whangarei, followed by the first trials of commercial clonal root stock production in 2000, then selling the root stock trees a decade later. “We’ve [also] got an orchard at Te Kopuru, which is just south of Dargaville, and that’s in response to a new water-storage scheme that’s gone in over there.” The Te Kopuru orchard covers 54 hectares and two-thirds is now planted after it was established four years ago. “The Maunu property is 13 hectares, which is a small orchard and nursery; that all started with five acres purchased in 1941.” Hass remains the predominant avocado variety worldwide and is the only variety exported from New Zealand, Steve says. Developing commercially viable new varieties with sufficient beneficial traits is a long, slow process that can take one to two decades, he says. “That’s where we’ve developed techniques, and I think I can safely say that Lynwood is the best in the world at propagating clonal rootstock avocados. Our services are in demand around the world.” Lynwood has projects in progress overseas including in Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey and Egypt, Niue, Australia, Japan, China and India. This international reach is the result of 20 years of research and development in producing clonal root stock at Lynwood avocado Nursery, Steve says. Although some of the specifics of this are commercially sensitive, “none of it is particularly fancy,” he says. “It’s just the attention to detail and getting the environment right at each stage – that’s a big part of it, and it’s the efficiencies that we are able to get compared to other countries,” he says. With the Covid pandemic and two major storms in the North Island, the past few years have been very difficult for avocado growers. This has impacted heavily on Lynwood, with full-time staff numbers dropping from 60 three years ago to just 12 today in line with the production of avocado trees peaking at 150,000 in 2017 to 25,000 last year. However, there is the potential of new green shoots appearing, with avocados only starting to register on the radar of Asians, Steve says. “They’ve got over half the world’s population and they import 5% of the world’s avocados. “That’s where our future is and it’s about growing for that anticipated demand. Whenever avocados get into a new country they just get on a consumption growth curve.” GOLDEN MILE Fruitpackers Ltd 09 438 2326 • info@goldenmile.co.nz Proudly supporting Lynwood Avocado Nursery • PACKING • RIPENING • COOL STORAGE • DISTRIBUTION The expertise of our people and planning, coupled with our commitment to this industry, means our growers are in safe hands. Horticultural & Commercial Roof Treatment Services Mahi Drones LTD offers exceptional aerial services to many varied industries and clients using a large capacity spray and spreading drone. FORESTRY AND AGRICULTURAL HORTICULTURAL COMMERCIAL 021 0277 2511 office@mahidrones.co.nz www.mahidrones.co.nz
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