Regional Food /
From humble beginnings on the outskirts of Christchurch, Scottfresh has blossomed into one of the South Island’s leading producers of farm-fresh broccoli, iceberg and baby leaf greens supplying the local market.
Farm-fresh veges year-round with Scottfresh
Wandering
across the fields of broccoli and lettuce on Scottfresh’s new development at Spotswood, north of Cheviot, Ben Scott finally has time to take stock of just how far the business has come in the past decade. It’s been allconsuming since he assumed the helm in 2003, driving a small family business to become a major player in the fresh broccoli and lettuce market.
Scottfresh was started by Ben’s father, Robert, in the 1970s growing quality produce in Marshlands, on the outskirts of Christchurch. With a degree in horticultural science from Lincoln University, Robert grew a range of vegetables including broccoli, lettuce, corn, onions, pumpkins, potatoes, peas and carrots over the years, developing a long-standing relationship with grower co-operative MG Marketing.
‘Back then, Marshlands was the food bowl of Christchurch. Dad was quite innovative in his own way. He was one of the first broccoli growers in the South Island and was also one of the first to have on-farm refrigeration,’ explains Ben.
As a young boy, Ben and his friends spent their holidays running wild on the market garden, helping out where they could. It’s where they learnt to drive, along with a host of other valuable life skills. They were good times. But it was probably more of a social club than anything else, he smiles.
On leaving school, Ben completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing, before entering a graduate programme in Auckland. Back then, he had absolutely no interest in running the family business. ‘I was going to take on the world. There was no way I was going into market gardening. I was sick of it.’
Within a couple of years though, he’d changed his mind. Back from Auckland, and filling in at Marshlands, Ben decided the market gardening business had an enormous future, and he wanted to be part of it, jumping in boots and all.
But for the business to take the next step, he could see changes needed to be made. ‘I made the decision early on that I was going to go hard, or not at all. It was part laziness. You have to be a certain size to employ others. I didn’t want to have to work 24/7; I wanted to enjoy family life as well as work.’
While the Marshlands operation had worked well in the early years, he says business growth was hampered by the short growing season. It was summer only. ‘Because we could only grow for five to six months of the year it meant that we couldn’t really invest in gear, employ people or establish strong markets.’
In a bid to give them year-round production, in 2006 Ben expanded and started growing lettuce at Conway Flat (North Canterbury) on a 2 ha block that had previously been established in a bold move years earlier by sheep and beef farmer Tom Macfarlane. Tom had identified the area as being a unique microclimate with minimal frost pressure, which was perfect for winter lettuce production. ‘It ’s about the only place in Canterbury you can grow lettuces during winter,’ explains Ben.
A couple of years later they opted to close the Marshlands operation. Initially, they leased land, before moving the entire summer operation to 70 ha of fully-irrigated land
at Southbridge in 2009. That same year they also invested heavily in a custom-built vacuum chiller, which gave them the ability to rapidly chill fresh product straight from the field to a core temperature of 2 degrees in around 45 minutes. ‘No one else was prepared to invest that much, but it’s been huge for us. This rapid cooling technique maintains the quality of the fresh product and increases the shelf life postharvest immensely. Wrapped lettuce is now our key product. We can only do it purely because we’re able to remove that field heat quickly,’ says Ben.
Scottfresh continued to expand the Conway Flat operation over the years from just 2 ha when they took over to almost 60 ha today, growing iceberg lettuce, broccoli and baby leaf. In 2014 they diversified production by growing baby leaf such as baby spinach, mesclun, kale and even coriander.
But with continued business growth, the distance between the two operations got progressively challenging as gear, and especially staff, had to move between locations several times a year. To simplify the operation, Ben decided to sell the Southbridge farm. After a lengthy search, two years ago they purchased 82 ha at Spotswood, which is only about 30 minutes south of Conway Flat.
‘Spotswood is for summer production, while Conway Flat remains our winter production operation. Both farms grow the same crops. It just means the operation can be managed by the same team and the same gear on both farms. We have one person, Andrew Derbidge, managing production over both sites.’
Whilst it was a very well-run sheep and beef farm, the Spotswood property needed a complete makeover to turn it into prime vegetable growing land. ‘Set below the river terrace, while it has great deep soil and good shelter, we’ve basically had to start from scratch. It’s a work in progress,’ admits Ben. Fences have been ripped out, linear irrigation and temporary accommodation added. ‘It’s taken a lot of work to get it to this point, and there’s still more to do, but it’s getting there.’
While it’s important to set the property up fit-forpurpose, in the back of his mind Ben’s always looking ahead.
Ben decided the market gardening business had an enormous future, and he wanted to be part of it, jumping in boots and all.
He’s always thinking of ways to improve and expand the business. ‘We don’t tend to add expensive infrastructure; everything other than the irrigation can be removed in case there’s an opportunity to move.’
Today, Ben has been able to take a step back from the business, allowing him to spend more time with his children Charlotte (13), George (11) and Annabel (10). After initially splitting his time between the different farms and his home in Christchurch, he’s no longer the boots on the ground. Instead, he puts his faith in his capable team to manage the 365-day-a-year operation, employing around seven full-time staff and a further 15 harvest and planting staff made up of backpackers and locals on school holidays. The summer baby leaf production at Greendale is run by a small crew on a cropshare basis with long-term associate Gerald Hickey.
Vegetable growing is heavily labour and hugely capital intensive, requiring highly specialised equipment, says
Ben. At Scottfresh, everything is grown from seedlings. To ensure consumers have delicious farm-fresh lettuces and broccoli year-round, they harvest and plant year-round. It’s a complicated system. They can grow up to 15 different varieties of iceberg lettuce just to produce iceberg lettuce that looks the same year-round, and it’s the same with broccoli. During summer months transplanted lettuce is harvested at 42 days, whereas this can blow out to 100 days during winter. One day’s difference at planting can mean a week’s difference at harvest.
Although it is a heavily intensive cropping business, Ben says they prefer to take a conservative approach, utilising minimum tillage principles and maximising technological
advances such as semi-controlled traffic farming using GPS. They follow their own crop rotation, as well as using silage break crops such as oats and grass. ‘We choose to put in a lot of grass or oats. We mulch a lot back into the ground to protect the soil. Keeping the soil as healthy as possible is a big thing for us.’
It ’s a tough industry though, at risk of weather and problems with oversupply lowering prices below the cost of production. While the business will undoubtedly suffer more ups and downs, Ben has no regrets. More than anything, he’s thankful his children have the opportunity to be involved on the land.
‘It’s been a massive learning curve. I learnt very quickly that you can’t run a business off a spreadsheet. Absolutely, I’m proud of what we have achieved. But I’m acutely aware of the fact that others have achieved it more than me though, such as Andrew [Derbidge] and Gerald [Hickey] and others before them.’
Despite the recent tough times, there’s no industry he’d rather be involved in. ‘It’s great to be involved in food production and great to be in that area and have those connections that we wouldn’t otherwise have. I see a great future in the industry,’ concludes Ben.
At Scottfresh, everything is grown from seedlings. To ensure consumers have delicious farm-fresh lettuces and broccoli year-round, they harvest and plant year-round.