August 27, 2024 • 6 mins
Owner of Utopia Nurseries Peter Rensen joins Hamish McKay to chat flower growing and the blooming export market for orchids. You can find Peter at utopiaorchids.co.nz/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right home. Now we're going to talk growing flowers. Peter
Rensen brought his passion for flower growing to New Zealand
from the Netherlands. He's the owner of Utopia nurseres a
west of pookie Coe in South Auckland, where business blooming.
Peter joins me. Now, Peter, how long have you been
growing flowers?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi hamies. Well, we've been growing flowers for thirty years
or something like that. Yeah, just after our company we
started growing and we're still doing it.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Did you bring much sort of experience with you in
this field from the Netherlands?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, yes, growing experience, but more so in pop plants,
right that we did over there and so yeah, but
it's similar to flower growing really.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, you've got thirty two hicties there as sup as
that's a bit big for pop plants, but yeah, you
use most of it for your flowers.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
No, no, no, we only use a little bit for
our flowers. Right. The one property that we live on
and bought next door, which is about twenty five hectares
and releasing most of the out for market gardening.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Right, So what flowers are the most popular? I mean,
what's the most sensible for you to grow? To produce.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
The last twenty years, we've been producing symbidium orchids that
we export all over the world. We export them to China, Japan, Australia, USA,
Canada and so that's mostly what we do from our
glasshouse operation.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And that's purely for economic reasons. Or are they a
favorite of yours or how did you sort of set
along them?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, we started off sort of like growing them because
it's a winter flowering crop. So basically you don't have
much to do in the summer, just crop maintenance, which
sounds pretty good, but then you know, it always is
one big problem. Then I want to go on a
holiday overseas, but in the Northern Hemisphere in December January
it's cold though. I never get to go there in
(01:57):
the summer, which is which is a bit of a pain,
but is what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
A yeah, absolutely what do you How much do you
grow for the local market? What sort of percentage of
the output?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, probably thirty to thirty five percent of our production
stays locally and the rest is exported via airplane.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Why are our flowers? What are Kiwi flowers? I mean,
they appear to be very much in demand. What makes
them so popular.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
This is overseas well. It's we are in the Southern
Hemisphere and this is a flower that only flowers in
the winter time. So in the Northern Hemisphere they produce
in their winter. In the Southern Hemisphere in our winter,
so basically in their summer Northern Hemisphere summer, there's no production.
So we have a window there. We can supply them
(02:46):
in their off season. That's why we have we're able
to supply them.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah. I had a fascinating chat recently with a good
friend of mine, Bill Foster, who has the company Morgan
Lawrence and who produced greens for supermarkets and everything. Yeah,
and Bill was the remarkable how I just said, how
do you get it into the packet and onto my
table so sort of fresh and clean and everything that happens.
(03:12):
What is the secret to exporting flowers?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Then, I guess you make a strong flower first that
travels well. Luckily, orchids are very robust. You know, they
will last for a long, long, long time. So as
soon as we pack them, it takes about five days
before they are at the customer overseas, and then they
should last another two weeks, which which is long enough
(03:37):
for what they use them. For So that's that's our advantage.
I guess in the type of flower we grow.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
How far in advance do you get your orders? How
far do you know how much you're going to have
to produce and send off?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, mostly just one or two days. Yeah, so we
grow and we can sort of plan when they're ready.
But an orchid can stay on the plant for about
a week. So we have regular customers like our japan customer,
they always want the same numbers every week, so that
is a good pace for us. Now we've been trying
(04:15):
to build up market in China that requires the same
sort of thing. They always want the same numbers, which
is actually it's just growing over the years like that,
and that works out really well, very hard hard. If
you get all big orders one week and nothing the
next week. That's very difficult to deal with because the
plants don't realize it. The flowers just keep growing. They
(04:35):
don't know that one week they they're not needed and
the next week they're needed. We'd like to have a
market that's consistent, yes, but.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
The growing and pecking is is there much? Is it
still labor intensive or do you have technology on your side?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, Unfortunately, it's quite labor intensive. It's we try to
automate as much as we can. We do the internal
trendsport is on trolleys and very as much automated as
we can. There's still a lot of manual labor involved. However,
the manual labor that is involved is pleasant. It's not
(05:11):
that hard to do so people. We can get people
to help me with these tasks quite easily. They quite
enjoy doing that, so that is not a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, finally you've got a bit of a wetland area
as well to a bit of development. They tell us
about that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yes, we bought some land next door to us and
there was about five or six hectares that are not
useful for horticulture for growing crops on. So there was
all streams and neglected gullies and things. So we thought, well,
we can let it go to rubbish, or we can
plumt it up and make it look nice and perhaps
(05:53):
leave the place a bit nicer than when we bought it.
So started planting first two hectares. The year after we
did three hectares. And we have this done by company
that's not far from us, so the plants are sourced
locally and they also look after the initial stage of
the plants, like weeding around them, spraying a few blackberries
(06:16):
and things like that, and they do in between planting
the next years after. So's it's developing very nicely. Actually,
we like to do things like that. You make the
place look nicer, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Too, right, great for the environment, great for the computing community.
And as you say, that look great. That has been
a rensom there South Auckland flower growth from Utopia Nurseries
just the west of a poky koe.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
There
Right home. Now we're going to talk growing flowers. Peter
Rensen brought his passion for flower growing to New Zealand
from the Netherlands. He's the owner of Utopia nurseres a
west of pookie Coe in South Auckland, where business blooming.
Peter joins me. Now, Peter, how long have you been
growing flowers?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi hamies. Well, we've been growing flowers for thirty years
or something like that. Yeah, just after our company we
started growing and we're still doing it.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Did you bring much sort of experience with you in
this field from the Netherlands?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, yes, growing experience, but more so in pop plants,
right that we did over there and so yeah, but
it's similar to flower growing really.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, you've got thirty two hicties there as sup as
that's a bit big for pop plants, but yeah, you
use most of it for your flowers.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
No, no, no, we only use a little bit for
our flowers. Right. The one property that we live on
and bought next door, which is about twenty five hectares
and releasing most of the out for market gardening.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Right, So what flowers are the most popular? I mean,
what's the most sensible for you to grow? To produce.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
The last twenty years, we've been producing symbidium orchids that
we export all over the world. We export them to China, Japan, Australia, USA,
Canada and so that's mostly what we do from our
glasshouse operation.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And that's purely for economic reasons. Or are they a
favorite of yours or how did you sort of set
along them?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, we started off sort of like growing them because
it's a winter flowering crop. So basically you don't have
much to do in the summer, just crop maintenance, which
sounds pretty good, but then you know, it always is
one big problem. Then I want to go on a
holiday overseas, but in the Northern Hemisphere in December January
it's cold though. I never get to go there in
(01:57):
the summer, which is which is a bit of a pain,
but is what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
A yeah, absolutely what do you How much do you
grow for the local market? What sort of percentage of
the output?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, probably thirty to thirty five percent of our production
stays locally and the rest is exported via airplane.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Why are our flowers? What are Kiwi flowers? I mean,
they appear to be very much in demand. What makes
them so popular.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
This is overseas well. It's we are in the Southern
Hemisphere and this is a flower that only flowers in
the winter time. So in the Northern Hemisphere they produce
in their winter. In the Southern Hemisphere in our winter,
so basically in their summer Northern Hemisphere summer, there's no production.
So we have a window there. We can supply them
(02:46):
in their off season. That's why we have we're able
to supply them.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah. I had a fascinating chat recently with a good
friend of mine, Bill Foster, who has the company Morgan
Lawrence and who produced greens for supermarkets and everything. Yeah,
and Bill was the remarkable how I just said, how
do you get it into the packet and onto my
table so sort of fresh and clean and everything that happens.
(03:12):
What is the secret to exporting flowers?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Then, I guess you make a strong flower first that
travels well. Luckily, orchids are very robust. You know, they
will last for a long, long, long time. So as
soon as we pack them, it takes about five days
before they are at the customer overseas, and then they
should last another two weeks, which which is long enough
(03:37):
for what they use them. For So that's that's our advantage.
I guess in the type of flower we grow.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
How far in advance do you get your orders? How
far do you know how much you're going to have
to produce and send off?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, mostly just one or two days. Yeah, so we
grow and we can sort of plan when they're ready.
But an orchid can stay on the plant for about
a week. So we have regular customers like our japan customer,
they always want the same numbers every week, so that
is a good pace for us. Now we've been trying
(04:15):
to build up market in China that requires the same
sort of thing. They always want the same numbers, which
is actually it's just growing over the years like that,
and that works out really well, very hard hard. If
you get all big orders one week and nothing the
next week. That's very difficult to deal with because the
plants don't realize it. The flowers just keep growing. They
(04:35):
don't know that one week they they're not needed and
the next week they're needed. We'd like to have a
market that's consistent, yes, but.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
The growing and pecking is is there much? Is it
still labor intensive or do you have technology on your side?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, Unfortunately, it's quite labor intensive. It's we try to
automate as much as we can. We do the internal
trendsport is on trolleys and very as much automated as
we can. There's still a lot of manual labor involved. However,
the manual labor that is involved is pleasant. It's not
(05:11):
that hard to do so people. We can get people
to help me with these tasks quite easily. They quite
enjoy doing that, so that is not a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, finally you've got a bit of a wetland area
as well to a bit of development. They tell us
about that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yes, we bought some land next door to us and
there was about five or six hectares that are not
useful for horticulture for growing crops on. So there was
all streams and neglected gullies and things. So we thought, well,
we can let it go to rubbish, or we can
plumt it up and make it look nice and perhaps
(05:53):
leave the place a bit nicer than when we bought it.
So started planting first two hectares. The year after we
did three hectares. And we have this done by company
that's not far from us, so the plants are sourced
locally and they also look after the initial stage of
the plants, like weeding around them, spraying a few blackberries
(06:16):
and things like that, and they do in between planting
the next years after. So's it's developing very nicely. Actually,
we like to do things like that. You make the
place look nicer, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Too, right, great for the environment, great for the computing community.
And as you say, that look great. That has been
a rensom there South Auckland flower growth from Utopia Nurseries
just the west of a poky koe.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
There
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