Shoppers asked to buy feijoas to help struggling growers

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A worker harvesting feijoas at Kaiaponi Farms in Tairāwhiti.
Photo: Kaiaponi Farms

Feijoa growers struggling with lower prices this season are asking consumers to buy the fruit to help boost returns.

The New Zealand Feijoa Growers Association said fruit from Gisborne was usually picked earlier, so growers there enjoyed higher prices before fruit from the rest of the country came onto the market.

But this year, the fruit had all come at the same time, pushing down the price growers were paid by $1 per kilogram.

“At that price growers will struggle to make a profit this season,” a spokesperson said.

Brent Fuller, who grows five hectares of feijoas near Napier, said he was only just covering costs, three weeks into the harvest.

“At the beginning at the season you make money but it kind of tapers off, that’s just happened quickly this year so we’ll slow down the harvest now.

“It’s crops, in any farming or horticultural work you have ups and downs and the price fluctuates – probably not as much as this year, but again that’s just the market.”

Philippa and Brent Fuller with their dog Kela.
Photo: Brent Fuller

Fuller said it was great to be harvesting again as last year three metres of floodwater destroyed his entire crop during Cyclone Gabrielle.

He said being a family business, he could keep costs low to reflect the lower price they were being paid – but said it was still tough going.

He said growers needed consumers to head out and buy feijoas to help stabilise the market a bit, in order to help boost returns for growers.

“We’re lucky we’ve had family helping out this season so we can taper off as needed and not sustain any losses.

“Labour costs will be the big cost hurting growers, then there’s orchard maintenance and spraying, we don’t spray a lot … but we still have to mow the orchard and prune it.”

Fuller said another hindrance was the cost of irrigation permits.

“It’s the same price for big multinational corporations as it is for small family businesses. It makes it tough in the current climate, it doesn’t encourage small growers.

“Those big companies have big volumes which helps offset the lower price a bit.”