The fruits of our labour

With a thriving local and export market, oranges, lemons and mandarins are one of the region's biggest employers of both permanent and casual labour.

It's not hard to realise that Kerikeri is one of the country's prime citrus-growing areas. Both commercial and private orchards abound and the beginnings of this now considerable industry can be traced to George Edwin Alderton.

The former editor of Whangarei's Northern Advocate who became a real estate salesman in Auckland was sufficiently interested in viticulture and citrus growing to write a booklet outlining his ideas in 1925. He purchased land in Kerikeri to put these concepts into practice and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today the citrus industry is worth millions to the country and around $12 million annually to the region. With a thriving local and export market, oranges, lemons and mandarins are one of the region's biggest employers of both permanent and casual labour. Take Kerifresh as an example.

The company (a division of Turners and Growers) owns numerous Far North citrus orchards - a mandarin orchard in Taipa also producing early navel oranges, two mandarin and five lemon orchards in Kerikeri and they manage several other orchards in the area on behalf of other owners.

Permanent staff number 15 in the citrus operation but it's the casual work-force that is by far the greater. At the moment, for instance, the citrus operation has 140 men from Tonga, here under the Recognised Seasonal Employment (RSE) programme. It's an 'export business' for places like Tonga or Vanuatu where employment opportunities are more subdued than here. Accommodation is provided at Aranga Backpackers where the owner also takes care of their transport needs to and from work and all meals so the domino effect benefits local lodge providers too.

Lloyd Foss, National Citrus Manager for Kerifresh, says while many locals presume the casual work-force is dominated by overseas pickers and packers they in fact employ more locals. The main season can see over 450 local casual workers on site.

The company exports around 40 per cent of the mandarins produced with the balance sold on the domestic market. All of the oranges, on the other hand, are sold domestically with production only reaching full potential in five years' time. Lemons are also produced for export (25 per cent) and domestic sale. Total citrus production amounts to around 5500 tons annually.

The main export market for mandarins is Japan although they are sold in three or four other countries. Lemons are much harder to export since they compete head-on with fruit from other countries with far lower production costs. Japan takes the majority of the fruit between the months of June through to September.

And of course Kerikeri citrus fruit is trucked around New Zealand. We grow the produce here on our doorstep but for Countdown supermarkets it gets trucked to a distribution centre in Auckland before coming back to the shelves in Kerikeri - a round trip of around 500 kilometres. New World, on the other hand, can accept fruit direct from the local orchards.

Growers of anything can expect to face difficulties and in the citrus industry a 'greening' disease called Huanglongbing (HLB) is of constant concern. In the USA it is moving at an alarming rate and that, perversely, may benefit our export market.

That aside, Kerikeri's citrus contribution to other parts of the world and to our own tables remains considerable.