Organic kiwifruit grower Jeff Roderick is achieving an average of 11,000 trays per ha; this he puts down to a mix of factors.
Perhaps first and foremost it is soil and location. Formerly a dairy farm, the 14-hectare orchard has naturally fertile, free draining volcanic soils with no need for irrigation.
But to be achieving such a production, there must be something else that Roderick has going for him.
"We transitioned to organics in the late 80s- early 90s so it's the longest running organic orchard. We produce 280-300,000 trays of organic fruit a year and receive $2 a tray premium," Roderick says.
At 11,000 trays per ha, he is up in the top 5 per cent of organic growers, "so we're getting a premium on a premium".
Roderick puts his success down to experience and attention to detail. Because he has his own workforce, he is not dependent on itinerant contractors, and can get on top of a problem immediately.
Roderick applies 8 tonne per ha of certified organic compost which is bought locally and several hundred kilograms per ha of ground up fish waste from Talleys in Nelson.
Besides offering their orchard for trials of new varieties, Roderick and his wife Shirley are regular overseas ambassadors for Zespri, visiting stores and informing customers about their products.
One of the bonuses of being a "trialist" is that growers get to keep a few vines of varieties that ultimately do not make the grade.
"Charm is a gold but a very sweet gold, I've got a couple of vines down there for my grandkids, it's really, really nice. Charm was considered the one but had poor keeping qualities, it shrivelled over time," says Roderick.
He puts a lot of store on the new sweet green variety, which he describes as 50:50 green and gold, and "stunning if you get it right".
Organic green fruit accounts for about 3.8m trays, and estimates are this year's crop of organic SunGold will be 750,000 trays. Although a low volume, that is a leap up on last year's crop of 490,000.
Demand for organic SunGold is outstripping supply at present.
Roderick nets $180,000 returns per ha for his SunGold; most organic SunGold growers should be able to net more than $100,000 per ha.
There are 82 growers of organic green fruit and 25 of organic SunGold in the Bay of Plenty.
