Team players win big
AMIX of pipfruit growers, sheep and beef farmers and agribusiness people attended the field day for the 2016 winners of the East Coast Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
Graham and Marian Hirst, pictured, have spent 27 years building an 11-hectare bare block into a thriving 40ha pipfruit and blueberry orchard business.
The awards judges described them as a hard working couple using their individual strengths to create a strong team balancing innovation with production strengths.
Export apples account for 90 per cent of the business but the newer Bay Blueberries entity is flourishing, producing fresh export, fresh and frozen berries and artisan blueberry products.
The Hirsts have grown their business from an 11ha bare block planted in 1989 with just 1.5ha of apples to a successful multifaceted operation with 32ha of apples, 2.5ha of blueberries, a permanent full-time team of seven (including themselves), two permanent part-timers and a seasonal team of more than 100 people. The team has people from a range of cultures especially from the local Samoan community and seasonal workers from Vanuatu.
The judges believed Graham and Marian had a ‘‘personal factor through the roof’’ and ‘‘a stunning social conscience’’.
Marian said strong relationships were a recurring theme in their business from their banker and accountant through to their exporters, retailers, horticultural suppliers and consultants. The couple said orchard foreman, Kelly Whaanga, who has been a staff member for 16 years, played a pivotal role in the business.
The various stops at the field day encompassed the category awards they won on the way to winning the regional supreme title – the CB Norwood Distributors Agri-Business Management Award, the East Coast Farming for the Future Award as sponsored by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Gisborne District Council, Massey University Innovation Award and PGG Wrightson People in Agriculture Award.
The couple’s approach to growing is simple and unequivocal: ‘‘It is industry-best practise for everything. We are passionate about growing quality fruit in the most eco-friendly sustainable manner as possible. We have very targeted export markets so everything we do is focused on great fruit to the right market in the right condition.’’
East Coast Ballance Farm Environment Awards chairman Steve Wyn-Harris says it was apparent on the day to see why the finals judges had selected this operation as the overall winner.
‘‘The Hirsts tick all the boxes in terms of running a business that is environmentally, financially and socially