Craigmore's business manager of development Shane Flynn oversees its apple orchard developments in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
Out with the old, in with the new. On an orchard site near Hastings, there are green shoots starting to appear.
A fresh injection of "much-needed" foreign investment is helping Hawke's Bay apple orchards redevelop to align more closely with changing consumer tastes.
Craigmore Sustainables is a rural investment agency that works with global capital partners to build and manage more than 33,000ha of farms, orchards and forestry businesses in New Zealand.
Over the past year it has grown its investment in the apple industry, especially with the purchase of four orchards across Central Hawke's Bay, the Heretaunga Plains and Gisborne.
Business manager of development Shane Flynn, who oversees these orchards, told Country Life capital constraints were a "significant" challenge which Craigmore helped address.
"Bringing in some foreign investment, some well-needed capital into the industry to allow the industry to thrive and to keep growing as it needs to," he said.
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Growers battled severe labour shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic, and severe weather events, including Cyclone Gabrielle last year, pushing many in the industry to breaking point.
Given this, Flynn said it was exciting to see renewed investment in the industry.
"It's good to see further investment within the industry and people willing to still have a go even though we've faced a number of challenges over the last three or four years."
Teams have been hard at work redeveloping one of the orchards acquired in June this year. Over the past few months, they have pulled out the old trees and started replacing aged infrastructure with more modern growing systems.
"To set up something like this is probably north of $200,000 a hectare and then you've got two to three years of growing costs before you actually start returning a crop," Flynn said. "So yeah, the need for foreign investment as well as investment from New Zealanders is extremely important for our industry."
The orchard is being planted in more popular varieties like dazzle and rockit. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
The 22ha block was once planted in the "tried and true" Royal Gala apple variety, he said.
"Everyone across New Zealand, if not the world, knows Royal Gala. Unfortunately its cost of production right now is outweighing the returns. As we need to keep evolving and changing and listening to what the markets are after, we've had to redevelop three of the new varieties."
Now it's Rockit and Dazzle apples going in.This aligns with a shift in consumer tastes towards something with a "point of difference".
Something that's different also attracts a premium price for the grower.
"There's varieties that everyone is looking at investing in, taking a cautious approach because they're somewhat new and maybe unproven."
Over the past three months, Craigmore Sustainables has redeveloped about 22-hectares of this orchard site. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
There have been other changes in the industry in recent years too, Flynn said.
Orchards have gone from having 1000-1500 trees per hectare to between 2500-3500 trees per hectare. This has increased production, but the smaller root systems that have allowed more trees also mean more support is required through trellises and wiring.
Increased production has gone from 30-50 tonnes of apples per hectare to between 90-120 tonnes a hectare.
Flynn has been mindful of trying to future-proof the new development and plan for increased automation opportunities in the future. Orchards which needed to redevelop in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle have also tried to adapt.
"Although the cyclone was extremely devastating it has forced us to look at innovations, different planting techniques, different ways that we produce a crop, looking at different technologies and equipment," Flynn said. "We can't just continue to do the norm. As our labour costs increase we need to look at different ways to increase production, reduce cost and be world leaders in growing apples."
With the new blocks, Craigmore now has about 700ha in apple canopies. It produced about 2200 tonnes of apples for the 2023/24 season.
Craigmore Sustainables works with global capital partners to build and manage farms, orchards and forestry businesses. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
