February 15, 2026 • 6 mins
The managing director of Origin Capital Partners discusses the state of the kiwifruit industry and how you can invest in it.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And clement weather around the country. Let's head to somewhere
where it's been a bit wet recently, though they have
dodged a bullet compared to other places in the North Island,
the Bay of Plenty. There we find Dominic Jones Origin
Capital Partners. Now I've got to get this right, Dominant,
because your mum, Trish will be on the case. Last
time I chatted to you, I called you a corporate
(00:21):
Kiwi fruit grower, but mum was none too pleased.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hi Javey, thanks for having me on. Yeah, you's got
to keep my mother happy.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
If it's okay, okay, Well, let's call you a keyw
fruit growing managed fun. I know you've got orchards and
the Bay of Plenty and the Gisbon region before we
talk about harvest believe it or not getting under way
this week. How has the weather affected you in recent weeks?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh yeah, look so obviously famously pretty wet in the
Bay of Plenty a few weeks ago. We had some
rain this weekend, but I just called that normal rain.
It's sort of not really heen noor there, so a
couple of inches. If we were dairy farmers, we would
have been looking forward to the rain as key for growers,
we'd probably prefer that it didn't come at this time
(01:09):
of year. You're you're trying to encourage dry matter and
you want sunlight for that. But it's all part and
parcel of dealing with growing food and the west.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
How are you getting on with your orchards in the
Gisbane region because you've got some reasonable transport challenges in
that neck of the woods at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, so it's been harvest for the goal that will
start in about three or four weeks time. The gorge
is sort of closed at the moment. You can catch
convoys through it. Sounds like they're likely to open it
more fully this week and so that'll be good. The
Gisbane crops look as good as I've ever seen it
(01:54):
in any of our years being there, so we're all
hopeful that we can bring the truck, bring the truck
through the gorge. Big picture, if you have to go
the longer way, then you have to go the longer way,
So it's a little bit more expensive, but not a
big deal.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Why do you have to truck the fruit from the
Gisbane region to buy a plenty? I know all your
pack houses are there, But why don't you just chuck
them on a boat at Gisbine Port.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It's a very good question. I don't actually know the
answer to that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Or maybe I should be the managing director of Origin
Capital Partners. I might save you some money.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Dom you're not thinking big enough. Maybe it's yes three. Look,
once you get the fruit off the vines at that
time of year, you want to get them into a
box as quickly as possible. And so to fill up
a big ship has tacked a lot longer than to
fill up a little truck. I suppose.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, okay, fair enough. Harvest starting this week, and as
you said, the gold's about a month away. This is
Kiwi Fruit Red. Is this the next big thing or
is it always going to be a minor player compared
to Kiwi Fruit Gold Red.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Starting this week, Red looking like it will be about
five million trays compared to three million last year. So
Red is probably going to keep growing from five million
today to I'm sure more than ten million trays over
the next the next week while. But to give you
an example, Gold this year will be about one hundred
and forty five million trays and Green is about fifty
(03:22):
five so it's a red reads a pretty small part
of that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, Zespury estimating another record year in terms of volume.
Can you find a home for all of this? Is
this growth in the Keywi fruit industry sustainable? I know
that Zesprey keeps a keen watch on keyw fruit licenses.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Absolutely we can. So the first thing is if every
season was exactly the same, then every season you would
expect to be a record and that's because Desbury have
been progressively releasing additional sun gold license every year. This
year they're releasing four hundred hected, which sounds like a
(04:01):
hell of a lot, and to put it in context,
that's hundreds of millions of dollars of investment required through
the license and building the orchards, et cetera. But equally,
that four hundred hectares is growing the total total Kiwi
fruit pool by about three percent of volume per year.
(04:22):
So at that level of growth, yes, it is growth,
but you get much bigger swings the year to year
depending on the quality of the season, and that growth
is actually a lot slower than what we've seen over
the last ten years in the industry. So yeah, we
we absolutely believe that the industry can handle it, and
the reality is there's still good value there and so
(04:43):
growing the industry is good for the industry and it's
good for the communities and the regions that we're in
as well.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So you're a Kiwi fruit grower or growing managed fund,
I know you've got two funds number one and two.
Are they're fully subscribed, the inner is full there, you're
going to to release a third one, yep.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So we have two funds. We raised them in twenty
twenty one and then twenty twenty two, and so we
raise the funds and then over the next few years
we invest that capital through either buying orchards or developing
orchards from beer land, or in some cases converting green
orchards to gold. We've just finished, we've completed all of
(05:24):
the investment from our second funds. We've just pulled the
trigger on another development and so yeah, we're we're going
to raise a third fund. We'll probably kick off that
raise in the next month or so, and that's going
to do exactly the same things as our first two funds.
It's going to invest predominantly in sun gold. We will
do that through the buying sun gold orchards or building
(05:46):
them from beer land or converting them from green and
we will invest in Zespri through ownership of ESPRA shares
as well.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Your funds have performed well, with the exception of a
bit of a kick in the guts in the Gisban
region from Gabrielle, but you weren't alone there.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yep. No, the funds, the funds are going. The funds
are going really well. You have good years and you
have bad years. Twenty twenty three was a pretty crappy
year with gabriel but equally the last couple of years
have been exceptional and that's horticulture, right. So yes, look,
(06:23):
we're really happy with how it's going and just excited
to keep growing our business. Really, we have about two
hundred and sixty investors across our two funds. We're looking
to just keep that trajectory going.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Watch the Space Origin Capital Partners fun number three coming up.
Your chance to and maybe invest in that one. I
hope your mum's happy with how I handled the interview today. Dom,
good to chat mate, and I hope you get a
good spell of weather for your Kiwi fruit harvest.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Thank you me too, appreciate it.
And clement weather around the country. Let's head to somewhere
where it's been a bit wet recently, though they have
dodged a bullet compared to other places in the North Island,
the Bay of Plenty. There we find Dominic Jones Origin
Capital Partners. Now I've got to get this right, Dominant,
because your mum, Trish will be on the case. Last
time I chatted to you, I called you a corporate
(00:21):
Kiwi fruit grower, but mum was none too pleased.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hi Javey, thanks for having me on. Yeah, you's got
to keep my mother happy.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
If it's okay, okay, Well, let's call you a keyw
fruit growing managed fun. I know you've got orchards and
the Bay of Plenty and the Gisbon region before we
talk about harvest believe it or not getting under way
this week. How has the weather affected you in recent weeks?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh yeah, look so obviously famously pretty wet in the
Bay of Plenty a few weeks ago. We had some
rain this weekend, but I just called that normal rain.
It's sort of not really heen noor there, so a
couple of inches. If we were dairy farmers, we would
have been looking forward to the rain as key for growers,
we'd probably prefer that it didn't come at this time
(01:09):
of year. You're you're trying to encourage dry matter and
you want sunlight for that. But it's all part and
parcel of dealing with growing food and the west.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
How are you getting on with your orchards in the
Gisbane region because you've got some reasonable transport challenges in
that neck of the woods at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, so it's been harvest for the goal that will
start in about three or four weeks time. The gorge
is sort of closed at the moment. You can catch
convoys through it. Sounds like they're likely to open it
more fully this week and so that'll be good. The
Gisbane crops look as good as I've ever seen it
(01:54):
in any of our years being there, so we're all
hopeful that we can bring the truck, bring the truck
through the gorge. Big picture, if you have to go
the longer way, then you have to go the longer way,
So it's a little bit more expensive, but not a
big deal.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Why do you have to truck the fruit from the
Gisbane region to buy a plenty? I know all your
pack houses are there, But why don't you just chuck
them on a boat at Gisbine Port.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It's a very good question. I don't actually know the
answer to that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Or maybe I should be the managing director of Origin
Capital Partners. I might save you some money.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Dom you're not thinking big enough. Maybe it's yes three. Look,
once you get the fruit off the vines at that
time of year, you want to get them into a
box as quickly as possible. And so to fill up
a big ship has tacked a lot longer than to
fill up a little truck. I suppose.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, okay, fair enough. Harvest starting this week, and as
you said, the gold's about a month away. This is
Kiwi Fruit Red. Is this the next big thing or
is it always going to be a minor player compared
to Kiwi Fruit Gold Red.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Starting this week, Red looking like it will be about
five million trays compared to three million last year. So
Red is probably going to keep growing from five million
today to I'm sure more than ten million trays over
the next the next week while. But to give you
an example, Gold this year will be about one hundred
and forty five million trays and Green is about fifty
(03:22):
five so it's a red reads a pretty small part
of that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, Zespury estimating another record year in terms of volume.
Can you find a home for all of this? Is
this growth in the Keywi fruit industry sustainable? I know
that Zesprey keeps a keen watch on keyw fruit licenses.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Absolutely we can. So the first thing is if every
season was exactly the same, then every season you would
expect to be a record and that's because Desbury have
been progressively releasing additional sun gold license every year. This
year they're releasing four hundred hected, which sounds like a
(04:01):
hell of a lot, and to put it in context,
that's hundreds of millions of dollars of investment required through
the license and building the orchards, et cetera. But equally,
that four hundred hectares is growing the total total Kiwi
fruit pool by about three percent of volume per year.
(04:22):
So at that level of growth, yes, it is growth,
but you get much bigger swings the year to year
depending on the quality of the season, and that growth
is actually a lot slower than what we've seen over
the last ten years in the industry. So yeah, we
we absolutely believe that the industry can handle it, and
the reality is there's still good value there and so
(04:43):
growing the industry is good for the industry and it's
good for the communities and the regions that we're in
as well.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So you're a Kiwi fruit grower or growing managed fund,
I know you've got two funds number one and two.
Are they're fully subscribed, the inner is full there, you're
going to to release a third one, yep.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So we have two funds. We raised them in twenty
twenty one and then twenty twenty two, and so we
raise the funds and then over the next few years
we invest that capital through either buying orchards or developing
orchards from beer land, or in some cases converting green
orchards to gold. We've just finished, we've completed all of
(05:24):
the investment from our second funds. We've just pulled the
trigger on another development and so yeah, we're we're going
to raise a third fund. We'll probably kick off that
raise in the next month or so, and that's going
to do exactly the same things as our first two funds.
It's going to invest predominantly in sun gold. We will
do that through the buying sun gold orchards or building
(05:46):
them from beer land or converting them from green and
we will invest in Zespri through ownership of ESPRA shares
as well.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Your funds have performed well, with the exception of a
bit of a kick in the guts in the Gisban
region from Gabrielle, but you weren't alone there.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yep. No, the funds, the funds are going. The funds
are going really well. You have good years and you
have bad years. Twenty twenty three was a pretty crappy
year with gabriel but equally the last couple of years
have been exceptional and that's horticulture, right. So yes, look,
(06:23):
we're really happy with how it's going and just excited
to keep growing our business. Really, we have about two
hundred and sixty investors across our two funds. We're looking
to just keep that trajectory going.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Watch the Space Origin Capital Partners fun number three coming up.
Your chance to and maybe invest in that one. I
hope your mum's happy with how I handled the interview today. Dom,
good to chat mate, and I hope you get a
good spell of weather for your Kiwi fruit harvest.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Thank you me too, appreciate it.
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