Southern Belle Orchard, situated in Mata Mata, harvested the last feijoas two weeks ago. Frans de Jong who owns the company said that normally he would expect 30kg of fruit from a mature tree, although this year high winds and a lot of cold, dark days in spring affected the pollination process and the yield this season has been down by 40%.
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"The fruit must be harvested when it is almost ripe and then it has a four week window to reach the market, so we need to pick often to catch the fruit when it is just right," explains Frans. "Work is being done on new varieties to extend the shelf life and there is research being done to fine tune the storage temperature which could also extend the shipping time."
All harvesting is done by hand, and pickers know by touch which ones need to be picked, each tree is picked every second day for about 3 weeks during the season.
The fruit receives a post harvest treatment before going to the packing shed. It takes around three days from picking for the fruit to get to Auckland for export.
Southern Belle Orchard has planted all their trees in an espalier system, this give much higher yields per hectare, higher quality fruit and reduces labour costs for picking and pruning.
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Frans admits that there is a big need to grow interest in this fruit, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, as it is not a well known fruit yet worldwide. "We need to encourage people there to grow it and try to achieve a year round supply as this is what the retailers want. There are some growers in Italy and interest from someone in Azerbaijan! Chinese fruit growers are also showing an interest."
The greenhouses
As well as a feijoa orchard Southern Belle Orchard also has greenhouses which produce capsicums and chillis. The company doubled the area of greenhouse space in 2014 and now have 3000m2.
This year the summer was quite dull with low light levels, and in general in New Zealand they don't use artificial lighting in greenhouses. Frans said that they will try to keep producing till July this year and extend the season as prices are good as they go into the winter, but this will be very dependent on the light levels.
"Our yield is 40 tonnes per greenhouse which is really good for New Zealand," explains Frans. "We sell our peppers to the high end retailers and also on the farmer's markets. One variety we grow is the Sweet Palermo, which is still new to consumers in New Zealand and at the farmer's market, when they get a taste of it, they always come back for more! It is becoming very popular."
The greenhouses are heated by a unique hot air system which spreads the warm air though the greenhouse, this means there are no tubes on the floor which makes cleaning easier. It also means low energy costs, as the greenhouses are heated using recycled oil, which has been repeatedly filtered and is clean. Its good for the environment too as it means the oil does not have to dumped.
In the rows of peppers there is a two layer system at the base of the plants, the first layer is the heating duct and then the plant layer. There are also two layers of plastic, the first one keeps the heat exactly where it is needed to heat the roots to 20-22 °C.
"We use pumice in the base as it can store a lot of water, it can be used for as long as ten years. Unlike some greenhouses these are not sterilised. In the main tank there is a bag of compost with nutrients in it - a 'teabag with compost'. It also contains kelp and humic acid."
Predator insects are used to get rid of pests, but in New Zealand you can't use all the predator insects as they can't all be imported due to the strict bio-security rules.
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For more information:
Southern Belle Orchard
Tel:: +64 7 888 6412
Email: sobelor@gmail.com
www.southernbelleorchard.com
www.facebook.com/southernbelleorchard