Blueberry patch ripe for sale
Avertically-integrated Waikato blueberry orchard operation — featuring an associated pack-house plant and retail foodservice business — is on the market.
The 4.49ha property at Ohaupo, in the Waikato, features about 3ha of blueberry plantings, along with buildings, equipment, and plant used for picking, processing and manufacturing blueberries.
Harvested between December and March, about 80 per cent of New Zealand’s blueberry crop is grown in the Waikato region.
Over the 2017/2018 harvest, the property picked about 17,000kg of blueberries — delivering a profit of more than $200,000 for its current owner/operators.
In addition to selling freshly-picked blueberries during the short growing season, the business also sells frozen blueberries throughout the remainder of the year, subject to availability.
Now the freehold blueberry plantation, supporting building infrastructure, crop-maintenance equipment and processing plant — at 446 O’Regan Rd in Ohaupo — is being marketed for sale as a going concern at auction at 11am on September 20, through Bayleys Hamilton.
The property features in Bayleys’ latest Total Property portfolio magazine. Salespeople Josh Smith and Scott Macdonald said the orchard was planted in a mix of young and mature blueberry shrubs.
“Looking ahead, the current harvest volume should increase for a number of years to come as the ‘younger’ plants mature and produce an ever-growing number of berries,” Smith says.
“The current cropping and processing is undertaken by seasonal pickers employed under the supervision of the owners, who then focus on the processing and retailing of the end product.
“The orchard crops multiple varieties of blueberries to ensure a ‘conveyor belt’ of ripening periods throughout the growing season — rather than having all stock peak at the same time.”
Macdonald says that in addition to higher blueberry volumes forecast over the coming seasons from O’Regan Rd plantings, there is also the opportunity to expand the orchard size by planting at the front of the property.
The business’s retail operations are run out of the orchard’s on-site pack-house and production plant — underpinning the “authenticity” experience for customers buying directly from the grower. “From a retail perspective, the current shop layout and product range also offers an entrepreneurial agriculturalist opportunities to increase the diversity of consumer offerings,” he said.
The property includes a substantial 204sq m four-bedroom owner/ manager’s residence on a flat site.