New Zealand: Salad days never end for hydroponic grower
Mr Cadman's Hydroponic Fresh business has been in the South Taranaki town for 22 years. It started with one plastic house and now 15 fill the 1.3ha site in Lupton St.
It's one of the bigger hydroponic operations in New Zealand, with 200,000 seedlings in constant rotation.
Big buyers are the Foodstuffs supermarket co-operative and wholesalers, but Mr Cadman supplies smaller retailers too. During the Chronicle's visit he took a call from Waverley Four Square, which wanted four bags of lettuce leaves.
Lettuce is delivered to Wanganui, Marton and Palmerston North in the two trucks he runs. Other trucks pick it up in Palmerston North and take it on to Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and Wellington.
About half is sold as whole plants, with the rest of the plants broken up, washed in sterile water, dried in a washing machine spin cycle and bagged.
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