Business North November 2021

22 | Passion for kiwifruit drives success T Richard Loader EHC Orchard Management REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Proudly supporting EHC Orchard Management 0800 778 722 4 Te Puke Quarry Road, Te Puke www.rrtractors.co.nz A s both owner/growers and the manag- ers of Kiwifruit orchards, Tom Heeney and his wife Fee Edwards walk the same paths as their clients and field manag- ers, appreciating the challenges and opportu- nities 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. Seventeen years later the business has grown to a sizeable operation and manages 550 hectares of Kiwifruit orchards, predom- inantly 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 storage facility. “We match 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 vari- ety of kiwifruit has closed the seasonal shoul- ders up and reduced the seasonal impact of the industry, providing staff with well-paid work 365 days of the year. “From harvest we go straight into winter pruning, which, as we speak is just winding up now. “There will be a gap for about 10 days before going into our Spring/Summer work. Kiwifruit is just a weed really. T to page 24 “We match 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.”