Fruit Growing Continued

 

Fruit	Land area (ha)	Tonnes exported	Production location	Export dollars (billion)
Kiwifruit	13,000	363,000	Bay of Plenty (80%)	0.934
Apple and Pears	10,000 (90% apple)	325,800	Hawkes Bay (60%) and Nelson (30%)	0.484
Other fruits	Not available	Not available	Not available	0.322

 

New Zealand commercial fruit growers are generally represented by Horticulture New Zealand. Horticulture New Zealand produces ‘The Orchard’ magazine which provides useful information for fruit growers. Fruit growers growing fruits such as peaches, cherries, nectarines, apricots and plums are represented by Summerfruit New Zealand. Other industries such as Irrigation New Zealand also provide useful information and support on irrigation matters to fruit growers. Fruit growing has relatively lower impact on the environment. Activities such as pesticide use and water use are the key focus from an environmental perspective.

 

What can you do to NZ’s sustainability?

Your focus

Apart from choosing fruit growing as a lifestyle, profitability and environmental management should be the key factors to sustain fruit production and New Zealand economy. To maintain or improve profitability fruit tree and soil performance is critical for which nutrients, water, and soil conditioners (e.g.lime) and pest management are essential. Long-term profitability also improves with energy efficient practices. Water and land have to be managed to avoid or minimise any damage.

Therefore as a an fruit grower your main focus should be efficient, effective and proactive management of

• Profitability
• Fruit tree
• Soil
• Nutrients
• Water
• Frost
• Plant residues
• Pests and
• Energy