Fruit Crops – Waimea Plains Operation
BOYSENBERRIES
Boysenberries were discovered in California, USA by Rudolph Boysen in 1920's. It became the flagship fruit to the now world famous Knotts Berry Farm, Buena Park, California.
Nelson, New Zealand now grows over half of the worlds production of boysenberries. Boysenberries like Nelson’s climate and soil type and thrive under the expert eye of our Berryfruit staff.
Boysenberries are packed and frozen in block form, individually quick frozen (IQF) or processed into fruit concentrate for pail and drum shipping. We produce approx 400,000 kg each year for jams, ice creams, yogurts, pies and desserts.
APPLES
All main varieties are grown, including the newer sports of Braeburn and Royal Gala.
All of our new planting’s are on dwarf rootstock and new varieties include JazzTM (a cross between Braeburn and Royal Gala) and Tentation®. We are a member of the Tentation® Club which is a new variety that has been breed privately in France and licenced.
Our focus is export (to Asia, North America, UK and the Continent) with approx 80% exported, 5% local market grade, and 15% used in processing. Our apple production is approx 200,000 carton equivalents (3,600,000 kg).
KIWIFRUIT
The Nelson region is the southern most region in New Zealand in which kiwifruit are grown. They are a deciduous sub tropical fruit that originated from China. Brought to New Zealand in 1910 they were developed through breeding and selection programmes to the kiwifruit we know today.
All our kiwifruit are grown for export as either Class 1 sold through Zespri or Class 2 to Australia. Total trays produced for export is approx 100,000 trays.