Golden legacy of Wi Pere
Debbie Gregory
Some hard pruning has been the key to improving production in one of Gisborne’s biggest citrus operations.
When Lloyd Foss arrived to manage the Wi Pere Trust citrus operation five years ago it was not performing.
“It has been a major challenge to get it where it should be. We have made major improvements and inroads on the orchard to get it back to being profitable.”
In 2004, 276 tonnes of satsuma mandarins, 85 tonnes of encore mandarins and 85 tonnes of Valencia oranges were produced — a total of 446 tonnes.
This year its production figures are more than double that with 457 tonnes of satsuma mandarins, 110 tonnes of encore, 110 tonnes of Valencia. The addition of new varieties of navels in one orchard and the purchase of another block meant 525 tonnes navels added to production figures bringing the total to 1202 tonnes.
Basic orchard maintenance with an emphasis on pruning was the answer to improving productivity.
“That is something that is not done enough in Gisborne. For some reason people here think citrus does not need pruning. It does, and yearly!”
Wi Pere Trust owns a total of 50 hectares (35 effective) of citrus. The Tiniroto block of 35 hectares was bought 15 years ago and a new block of 15 hectares at Manutuke was taken over three years ago. In this block there were 21-year-old trees producing well below their potential.
“After some rigorous pruning we have got them back to producing good fruit.”
The Tiniroto block was also in need of some serious maintenance when Mr Foss arrived.
“It needed pruning and a lot of TLC — basically it had not been cared for in the way it should.”
The Tiniroto orchard has 20,300 satsuma mandarins, 3400 encore mandarins, 3400 Valencia oranges and 1200 Newhall navels with an average production of 800 tonnes a year.
The Manutuke orchard has 10,845 parent navel trees with an average production of 500 tonnes a year.
Wi Pere markets all its fruit through First Fresh and for the past three years has annually exported around 75 tonnes of satsuma mandarins to the United Kingdom.
“We get good prices so that is ongoing.”
Mr Foss says he is constantly looking for new varieties and ways to improve the business.
“You have to be proactive in this industry because it is a long-term industry. It is three years before you get anything from a new tree and it will be year eight or nine before it starts making money. In some instances by year 25 they are gone. I have proposals going forward to trustees for consideration on a regular basis.
“There is definitely scope for the trust to expand in citrus and adding lemons into the mix would give us a better spread of products. More summer mandarins would suit the business well,” he says.
“The size of any operation affects costs but we are at the point where we could take on another 20 to 30 hectares without having to change much in costs. We have got economies of scale.”
An aspect of expanding would be the orchard producing all 12 months of the year and becoming self-sufficient for labour.
At Wi Pere, except for two full-time staff, a supervisor Allan Rice and general hand Ben Tuahine, all labour is contracted.
“A problem in the industry here is the cost of labour as well as getting reliable people who are prepared to go out and work. That is why I went to contracted labour. I would have four people turn up for a job when I was expecting 40. It was impossible.
“I would be happy to employ people without any skills — that way we can teach them the way we want to. It would be good to get more people in the industry especially some younger people coming through into the industry.”
Mr Foss says there are challenges in the industry.
Apart from the volatile New Zealand dollar being a major factor in profitability for those growers exporting, the New Zealand citrus industry has to cope with cheap Australian navels, American navels and imported mandarins on supermarket shelves here.
Gisborne and Kerikeri are the two main citrus growing areas in the country and while the North has just a small number of big growers, Gisborne is the opposite.
This does tend to create problems of its own in that a lot of the smaller or lifestyle blocks do not rely on their citrus income and so quality is very variable. The packhouses and marketers do a great job in dealing with this fruit, he says.
A positive for Gisborne is the new early season navel oranges — Newhall and Navelina — although there are some planted in the north, the greater volume is here in Gisborne.
“They are doing really well here. They come early and get good money. They have excellent colour and taste when harvested at the correct time.”
“The thing to remember about Gisborne navels is that they taste the best in the world. I have tasted navels from all over the world and you can’t beat a navel grown in Gisborne.”
Mr Foss says an important tool for citrus is irrigation.
“You cannot grow without it as far as I am concerned. It is a tool to influence internal quality and fruit size. It is a must as far as I am concerned — the difference between the margin and the cream.”
“The long-term outlook for the weather will force the issue.”
The Tiniroto property is fully irrigated and the Manutuke system will hopefully be going pretty soon.”
Wi Pere runs an integrated pest management programme in the orchards and scouts check for pests and disease weekly, monitoring beneficial as well as bad pests. Sprays are only applied if required.
The biggest new pest and disease challenge is the Australian white fly.
“The NZCGI are busy trialling different products but there is nothing registered presently.”
The trust’s Tiniroto orchard has frost issues and Mr Foss has an innovative way to counter it — five SIS frost system machines that draw in cold air at ground level and expel it upwards, draining the cold damaging air from the block. The system, designed in Uruguay, is carefully calculated by way of property studies and topographical maps.
At $15,000 each, the frost protection was a big investment but was a better option compared to the cost of a helicopter at $2000 an hour.
“And at least the next morning the machine is still sitting in your orchard. This is the greenest option to frost control with the machines only burning on average around two litres of petrol an hour.”
Mr Foss, who is on the executive of the Orange and Tangelo product group of NZCGI has been involved with citrus all his working life. Before he shifted to New Zealand, he ran a 320 hectare orchard in South Africa, producing mainly grapefruit for export but also oranges and lemons in a smaller way.
When he first got here he worked in an apple orchard in Nelson.
“When I saw a position for citrus I jumped at it. I enjoyed apples but citrus is my game.”
He loves his job and is pleased with his decision to move north.