Embracing the Unpredictability of Every Kiwifruit Season

It's now been five years since Hill Labs established a Bay of Plenty branch dedicated to serving the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. Our Bay of Plenty branch collects kiwifruit samples from across Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, and Whanganui. These samples undergo a range of maturity testing at our Tauranga lab, providing trusted results for Zespri, growers, and packhouses to make informed harvest decisions.  

Each season, we start recruitment as early as October and continue into the new year, bringing on new and returning staff. This ensures we have a trained team ready to go, regardless of whether the season is early, "normal," or late. This season proved to be an early one, with positive early conditions leading to sampling, testing, and harvest volumes ahead of previous seasons through March and April.  

This season has been marked by peaks and troughs, including our largest daily volume processed. The harvest faced challenges such as Cyclone Tam coinciding with Easter and poor weather through Anzac weekend. Despite these hurdles, our team has done an excellent job sampling on orchard and testing in the lab, delivering on time and in spec to support the kiwifruit industry's ongoing growth and success.  

As we enter May, the Red harvest is well behind us, the Gold harvest is almost complete, and the Green harvest is over 30% complete. We can see the finish line approaching sometime in early June.  

Thank you to our dedicated team and partners for another successful season!