The 37ha highly-fertile vegetable cropping block is in the Bombay Hills near Patumahoe. Photo / Supplied
The 37ha highly-fertile vegetable cropping block is in the Bombay Hills near Patumahoe. Photo / Supplied
A highly-fertile vegetable cropping block producing broccoli, onions and pumpkins has been placed on the market in the Bombay Hills south of Auckland.
The gently sloping 37ha property at Patumahoe has a thick layer of nutrient-rich volcanic loam soil which has been sustaining commercial vegetable crops annually for 60-years.
A comprehensive catalogue of horticultural infrastructure buildings linked to the property are also featured in the package including:
• 63sq m refrigerated cool store and associated chilling plant;
• three residences used as the owner's home, and as potential staff quarters.
Patumahoe is in the heart of the Counties' vegetable cropping belt running along the Bombay Hills, in a region which produces most of Auckland's vegetable crops. The predominantly rectangular-shaped block up for sale has about 500m of road frontage onto Hunter Rd, with a further 350m of road frontage onto Gallager Rd.
It also has right-of-way access off Hart Rd. The land is zoned Rural Production and is subdivided into 15 plots.
The freehold productive property and buildings are being marketed for sale through a tender process being managed by Bayleys Pukekohe, with tenders closing at 4pm on May 15.
Bayleys Pukekohe salespeople Ben Jameson, Shona Brown and Shane Snijder say the farm's root vegetable produce supplies both local and international markets.
Tractors ploughing the volcanic loam soil which produces a variety of vegetables. Photo / Supplied
"This is a stereotypical established owner/operator horticultural operation which has been developed over a long period of time, and is now offered for sale in a 'turn-key' state ready to take on production for next year's onion and pumpkin crops," Jameson says.
"The rich soil type around Patumahoe is enhanced by the highly favourable environment and climate of the area — where 756mm of rainfall was recorded in the 12 months to the end of February 2018, and the average temperature over the same period was 17C.
"The land has also been meticulously fertilised and nutrient enriched over the past six decades to ensure its ongoing high productivity levels. The current crops of broccoli, onions and pumpkin are complementary in terms of harvesting months – ensuring efficient use of the cool store and packing shed assets, along with best use of labour and equipment."
Broccoli, for example, is at its peak over later autumn into early winter, while onions and pumpkins are harvested throughout summer and into autumn.
Jameson says there is the potential to grow alternative crops on the land — ranging from cauliflower and lettuce, through to carrots and potatoes. Additionally, the block's flat topography means glasshouses can be built on the site for year-round production, or for growing alternative types of produce.
Irrigation for the horticultural block at 134/138 and 170 Hunter Rd comes from a six-inch bore which has resource consent to draw up to 24,000 cubic metres of water a year from the Kaawa Aquifer. The property sits between 72-82m above sea level.
Brown says that, in addition to the land and buildings, the farm's plant and machinery inventory is also separately available to purchases and includes a fleet of tractors, trailers, vegetable seeders and rippers, ploughs and hoes.
She says the three residences on the property include a two-bedroom cottage, a three-bedroom weatherboard and wood dwelling, and a four-bedroom abode.
"The configuration of dwellings allows for occupation by an extended family looking to take on the horticultural activities or, from an absentee owner perspective, for housing managers and staff," Brown says.
The Patumahoe vegetable block comes onto the market hot on the heels of a Government report which has identified the on-going conversion of Auckland's productive horticultural land into residential lifestyle blocks.
The report entitled Our Land 2018, compiled by the Ministry for the Environment, highlights that more than 35 per cent of Auckland's most fertile soil has been consumed by lifestyle blocks. Prevalent among the change in land-use is property around Pukekohe, which has seen the number of residential lifestyle blocks increase by 58 per cent since the late 1990s.
"With residential developments ever-encroaching on horticultural land, combined with Auckland's ever-increasing population and its parallel growing demand for food, this has seen the value of productive land in and around Pukekohe and the Bombay Hills increasing steadily over the past decade," Jameson says.
