New horticulture venture brings pride, jobs and strawberries to Kaikohe

Reporter·Northern Advocate·

7 Oct, 2022 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Tracey Clausen says it's "an amazing feeling" to have a job close to Kaikohe instead of having to drive to Waipapa every day. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A new horticulture venture is bringing jobs and pride to Kaikohe — and fresh strawberries to Northland shoppers.

The first harvest at Ngāwhā Innovation and Enterprise Park, just east of Kaikohe, started on Friday morning with the first punnets of freshly picked strawberries on the shelves at Kaikohe New World by lunchtime.

Once the weather warms up and the harvest increases the berries will be available at New World in Kerikeri and Four Square in Waipapa. The rest of Northland will follow.

Kaikohe Berries currently has 3.3ha of growing tunnels in use; by next spring the venture will boast 10ha of tunnels with roughly 650,000 plants.

That will make it the biggest hydroponic strawberry growing operation north of the Waikato.

The Kaikohe Berries crew gather for karakia before the strawberry harvest gets under way. Photo / supplied

Workers spoken to by the Advocate on day one of the harvest were stoked to have meaningful jobs close to home and within sight of ancestral land.

Saian Heta, of Ngāwhā, said he'd been trying to get a job at the park since it was first mooted four years ago. Now he only had to drive five minutes to get to work.

"So that's beautiful," he said.

Tracey Clausen used to travel an hour a day to work in a kiwifruit orchard.

"It's an amazing feeling to be working here in Kaikohe. I don't have to drive to Waipapa and we're like one big happy family," she said.

Saian Heta, of Ngāwhā, says it's "beautiful" to have meaningful work so close to home. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Kaikohe Berries is a joint venture between Ngāpuhi Asset Holding Company and Far North Holdings, the commercial arms of Te Rūnanga-ā-iwi o Ngāpuhi and the Far North District Council, respectively.

It's one of the first businesses out of the starting blocks at the Ngāwhā enterprise park being developed by Far North Holdings on a former dairy farm next to State Highway 12.

Kaikohe Berries general manager Todd Jackson said the current harvest was a trial run.

The aim was to use early-fruiting varieties and the natural advantage of Northland's climate to get Kaikohe strawberries into the shops two to three weeks ahead of everyone else's.

A reliable water supply was another advantage. Once the nearby Matawii Dam was complete the venture would have access to almost unlimited water, he said.

Kaikohe 20-year-old Mata Waipouri helped build the growing systems at Kaikohe Berries and now he’s picking the results. Photo / Peter de Graaf

After a karakia (blessing), Friday's harvest started with six pickers and two supervisors.

That would ramp up to about 25 once the weather warmed up and more fruit ripened.

Jackson said there was a "natural synergy" in ensuring fruit grown in Kaikohe was available in Kaikohe first.

"To have locally grown fruit in local supermarkets that local people can buy is very meaningful to the people working here."

Staff felt "a real sense of pride" and were lifted by working on land that was significant to their whānau, he said.

"Kaikohe can get a bit of a bad rap sometimes, but we're trying to change perceptions and create a working environment that everyone's positive about. We've taken people who didn't have jobs but they're now skilful orchard workers."

Jackson had been told he'd struggle to find workers. Instead he had encountered "huge interest" from people keen to work close to home.

Kaikohe New World owner Darren Huston was equally passionate about the venture and was promoting the town's strawberries to other supermarkets.

Peter Malcolm of Ōkaihau at work in one of the growing tunnels. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Jackson expected the remaining growing tunnels would be completed in December-January. The joint venture had another 6ha of land which could be developed in future, possibly with other types of berries.

Head grower David "Obe" Oberdries said each of the 198 growing tunnels measured 50m by 10m.

Covered crop structures like those used at Ngāwhā were increasingly popular in horticulture due to changing weather patterns and more frequent extreme rain events.

It was also much easier to pick strawberries from hydroponic racks than in the mud out in the open, he said.

Mata Waipouri and general manager Todd Jackson check out the crop. Photo / Peter de Graaf

In 2020 Ngāwhā Innovation and Enterprise Park received $19.5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to pay for key infrastructure.

It's hoped the park will eventually create up to 400 jobs with businesses lured by low-cost electricity from a nearby geothermal power plant, plentiful water from Matawii Dam, and a "circular economy" in which businesses create products from each other's waste materials.

Matawii Dam also received PGF funding but in the form of a loan that will have to be repaid.