Early action pays off for grower

In mid-March, while the rest of New Zealand inched closer to coronavirus lockdown by the day, Robin Oakley took action.

‘‘I wasn’t going to take any chances, we’d seen what happened overseas,’’ the Canterbury farmer says of his early decision to introduce alert level 4-style restrictions.

‘‘About a week before the national lockdown, we split the workforce into six groups, largely based on what they do.

‘‘Each group has a separate lunch break, its own toilets and is only allowed in specific areas.’’

Oakley’s Premium Fresh Vegetables grows potatoes, broccoli, pumpkin and beetroot at sites across Canterbury, although its main base is at Southbridge, south of Christchurch.

With 350 hectares in vegetables and another 100 in arable crops, Oakley’s is among the largest fresh vegetable producers in the area and employs about 50 people.

The scale of the operation meant if Covid-19 got into the workforce, crop losses could be huge, he said.

‘‘I couldn’t risk it getting into my staff. My big concern was the pumpkin harvest – if I hadn’t been able to get that done, it would have been a big crop loss.

‘‘I didn’t want to have any regrets.’’

As well as splitting his workers into bubbles, Oakley ordered 500 masks and put hand sanitiser at every work station and in the company’s vehicles. ‘‘I’ve taken the attitude from the get-go that we should act like everyone’s got it and, looking back, I’m really glad that was my thinking.’’

But in spite of the extra precautions, the business has still had a couple of scares.

‘‘We had a couple of situations with people in our workers’ bubbles, so we stood those people down for two weeks, even though they were very low risk,’’ Oakley said. ‘‘Another worker had someone in their home bubble getting tested and we stood that whole group down as a precaution. Luckily, none of those scares came to anything and we could get on with the job.’’

Although there had been some horror stories of growers dumping crops, Oakley’s has so far continued to operate largely as normal. ‘‘We’re lucky to have Foodstuffs as a regular channel and we’ve been able to sell everything at reasonable prices for the time of year.

‘‘Looking at our books, you wouldn’t know anything had happened. If you were supplying lettuce to KFC or McDonald’s it would be a very different story.’’

Oakley said growers in the North Island, where smaller, independent operations are common, are likely to have been hit harder than those in the South Island.

‘‘Those businesses generally supply to smaller sellers and the hospitality industry and those markets have completely fallen over.’’