Business South May 2021

54 | HORTICULTURE Kiwi workers step up for harvest T T Kim Newth Kiwis, young and old, turned up for the recent cherry harvest in Cromwell. Pure Pac www.aoteaelectric.co.nz Phone: 03 445 1374 Email: cromwell.reception@aoteaelectric.co.nz Providing a full range of services to Residential, Commercial and Industrial Customers Aotea ELECTRIC I n pre-Covid times, overseas tourists and backpackers made up most of the 220-strong seasonal workforce employed by Pure Pac Ltd in Cromwell for the annual cherry harvest. This summer, it was mostly Kiwis doing the picking and packing. “At the end of the day, machines can’t pick cherries and, even with state of the art technology, we still need people in the pack- house,” explains Pure Pac grower and director Malcolm Little. “A decade ago, predominantly Kiwis and a few overseas backpackers were here for the harvest. In recent years that had switched to about 80 per cent backpack- ers and 20 per cent local but for our latest harvest, with fewer people coming into the country because of Covid, we had more Kiwis than backpackers, similar to 10 years ago. “They did a good job. We had a lot of students and pensioners do well too, with people coming out of retirement to work in the packhouse and transporting cherry bins in and from the orchards. One or two even had a crack at picking.” Local workers were recruited through backpacker and student websites and through Facebook. “We also went back to people who had worked for us in previous years. The Gov- ernment’s decision to extend working holiday and SSE visas was a real positive.” Growing cherries is a volatile business at the best of times, given the vagaries of the weather. Pure Pac’s cherry orchards were adversely impacted by heavy rainfall in January. “We estimate 100-plus tonnes were left on the orchard floor or were left unpicked because they were too damaged.” In spite of the challenges, 440 tonnes of premium quality cherries were able to be picked and boxed with half of that going into the New Zealand market and the remainder exported. Another 100 tonnes of cherries were also sold through gate sales. “The past year has really highlighted that the backbone of New Zealand is primary pro- duction, along with construction. “There is a growing call for more plant- based food, so I think horticulture in particular is in a strong position.” However, Malcolm cautions that some cher- ry investment offerings are over-inflating po - tential returns, given how exposed orchards are to extreme weather events. Pure Pac Ltd was formed in 2016 by a group of eight New Zealand cherry growers under Parkburn Management. Pure Pac and Parkburn Management are essentially a group of orchard owners and investors, with Pure Pac providing the group with state of the art packhouse facilities and a fully controlled supply chain. “Our first season was in 2017/18. We haven’t reached full production yet – we have “They did a good job. We had a lot of students and pensioners do well too, with people coming out of retirement to work in the packhouse and transporting cherry bins in and from the orchards. One or two even had a crack at picking.” young trees and young orchards – but we have the capacity to ultimately process around a 1000 tonnes.” Looking ahead, Malcolm says it would help orchardists immensely if the Recognised Sea- sonal Employer (RSE) scheme was allowed to operate fully again but obviously the scheme is affected by the current COVID-19 environ - ment. “New Zealanders are at last beginning to look at horticultural work as a long term prospect. We have employees on horticultural apprenticeships which are a great incentive to keep people in the industry.”