Shane Kingston: Turners and Growers COO on their expansion to Canterbury

Canterbury has been pinpointed as a prime apple growing location by a grower looking to expand. 

Turners and Growers is opening up its commercial apple growing endeavours to the region, committing to 125 hectares thanks to an agreement with the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.  

Chief Operating Officer Shane Kingston says they believe it's important to adapt and build resilience by growing varieties in different climates. 

He told Mike Hosking Canterbury has excellent opportunities with its flat land, fertile soil, and reliable water sources. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Canterbury Boom rolls on. I've got some good news here.
We're talking apples. T and G have announced they're expanding
their operation in the South. Ten G Chief Operating Officer
Shane Kingston is with a Shane morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is the is it the Jolie or the Jollylie,
Julie the Joe Lee as Dolly Pant's Lee Joe Lee.
So this is an apple, it's like the compare it
to the Envy or the Jazz.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, Joe is a unique taste, second to non texture
compared to oder apple. So whilst jazz is known for
being kind of crunchy, a tangy sweet, and Envyes are
about balance across sweetness and pressure Aromas and Joelye is
much much fuller flavored, much much crisper and really bursting.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Which fantastic. So you've got one hundred and twenty five
hicctas by way of expansion in Canterbury. So there's a
two part story. One you're expanding. So does one hundred
and twenty five hiccteas meet your demand and why Canterbury.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, I'll start with the second part first, Mike, believe
it's important we continue to adapt and build resilience into
our business. So some of the ways we're doing that
that's by developing, commercializing but new plant varieties, so Joe
Lee is a great example of that, but also varieties
that we've grown in different Doga brig climates, So that's
really diversifying and the risking are growing in supply footbrint

(01:17):
and then specifically provides excellent opportunity for this flat land
availability fertile soils, reliable water sources, adequate winter jail, decent rainfall,
and sufficient growing the gree day. So all of that
combines into something that's very very favorable and we believe,
you know, the risks are growing footprint within context of

(01:38):
New Zealand. So that's that piece when you think about
Joe Leading and varieties, it's really about continuing to meet
consumer demand globally, and this brand and variety stats really
really strongly against that.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Fantastic and the Apple story generally as compared with you know,
I Q we frutal gripes. I mean, are we booming
or not?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I would say we're booming. We've had some very very
challengingeers in New Zealand context. You know COVID certainly impacted
the sector. And then as you'll be well aware, you know,
the cyclone Gabriel really really impacted the northeast coastlines so
Keis Bernard and the key growing area of hoax Day,
so that you know twenty three was heavily impacted. Twenty

(02:18):
four there was residual impact from that. We're all hoping
that twenty five we've moved past all of that. Demand
continues to be good in global markets for New Zealand fruit.
It's really now about you know, we've started all companies
have started harvesting this season's crop this week, so we're
all fingers crossed that climate, continuous weather continues to be

(02:39):
favorable to us. The crop looks full and clean, so
this year is stacking up to be certainly better than
the last few.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
That's exciting. Guy Well, Shane appreciate it. Shane Kingston on
the apples. So the crop looks good. I'm slightly worried
in the north about the gripes. If you down polls
might have caused some interesting issues. I head an Italian
Kiwi fruit. We've got to get zisbrie on so I
had an Italian I didn't realize it was Italian. I
ate into the kiwi fruit, it tasted nothing like a
kiwi fruit, and I thought, there's something wrong here labels

(03:08):
it Italian. And then I thought to myself, because we've
had a number of conversations, they want to They voted
last year successfully to expand their growing operation internationally and
one of the places they grow is Italy so they
can supply the world twenty four to seven. But I
worry that if we're growing kiwi fruit in Italy and
these Italian Kiwi fruit don't take it taste like kuy fruit,
We're going to damage our brand.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
What did it taste like?

Speaker 1 (03:29):
It tastes like nothing like. It tastes like came from
California in some bloke with a spray can had gone
past and spray the bejesus out of it, and it
tastes nothing like kiwi fruit. So we need to get
zest freon pressing issues Sam.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
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