Mel Bennett

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We speak to Mel Bennett, a progressive leader in New Zealand's horticulture industry ✨

Mel has come a long way- From accidental beginnings in the avocado sector 🥑 to pivoting into kiwifruit🥝, and now embarking on her new journey as a mum. 

We discuss the importance of both backing yourself as well as getting super support in a new journey, building strong relationships, grabbing opportunities with both hands and when you bite off more than you can chew- you gotta chew like hell! 🙌

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Black Eels and drag de Wheels The Rural Women and
z podcast hosted by Emma Higgins and Claire Williamson.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Today on the podcast, we have a fabulous chat with
mel Bennett, a progressive leader in New Zealand's horticulture industry.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Malt has come a long way from accidental beginnings in
the avocado sector to pivoting into Kiwi Throat and now
embarking on her new journey as a mum.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
We discussed the importance of both backing yourself as well
as getting super support in a new journey, building strong relationships,
grabbing opportunities with both hands, and when you bite off
more than you can chew, you got to chew. Like
hel So mal tell us a little bit about yourself
for those that might not know you, have you always

(00:48):
been a rural girl at heart.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I think I've always been a rural girl at heart.
I haven't necessarily lived that life. So I grew up
in Rhoda, Rua, went to university over in Hamilton, probably
the furthest way that you can get from rural, but
always kind of had that interest in the outdoors, in
science and nature everything like that. So making this sigway

(01:15):
into horticulture was kind of like that perfect career career
course for me.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Awesome, And so tell us a little bit about how
you made that journey from university into more of their
horticulture space.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, so we actually have a bit of a joke
that I accidentally ended up in avocados when I was
coming up. I was actually coming up to my last
lot of exams, and like every other person who was
about to graduate, I was applying for jobs left right
and center, and one came up at the avocado industry
and I was like, oh, why not, let's give that
a shot. Applied for it, but then completely forgot that

(01:55):
I had actually applied for the job. So when I
got the email saying that I'd been successfully getting an interview,
I had that oh God moment because I didn't know
what I applied for. I didn't know what the role was,
everything like that. So I had to basically knuckle down
do as much research as I could through their website.
And then it was successful in that and had a

(02:16):
graduate position, and that was kind of my first taster
for horticulture for avocados. I'd never been on an avocado
worichard before, so that kind of started this whole trajectory
that's taken my career to where it is now. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
I love that. So I like to say that I'm
an accidental avocado farmer because one night I had a
few too many drinks and ordered a hundred trees and
they arrived and then we had to sort of figure
out what to do with them. And so now they're
planted and we're doing a very poor job of keeping
them alive. But we did get a couple of avocados
this year. So talk to me. Yeah, So talk to

(02:52):
me about this role that you now have. Well actually
even just your junior so I believe you might have
had a couple of different roles. So what do you
do within the industry. I believe you're supporting growers and
what does that kind of look like day to day
or even your journey in that role.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, So my journey and the role so I was
with in the avocado industry basically from it must have
been twenty seventeen through till twenty twenty and COVID happened
and I basically sat back and thought, right, I'm at
that point I need to take the next step. And
that's when I moved into my current company and I
took on an avocado growl Services Rep role, so that

(03:32):
there was definitely just supporting growers, making sure that they
were informed with what's going on in the industry, what's
happening that could impact them and their orchards and their
harvest really and then of course organizing that harvest and
getting that all done. And I kind of did that
for two years, and I got itchy feet. I was like, oh,

(03:52):
I've done this. I've done two seasons. Now, I've done
two harvests. I need something else. I need something that's
going to keep me engage, keep me thinking, and keep
me on my toes. And the role that I currently
have was actually empty at my company for about sixteen months,
and I talked to one of my fellow co workers
just to see, Hey, do you reckon I could do

(04:12):
it like it was in Kiwi Fruit. I've never really
done anything to do with Kiwi fruit. My whole life
had been avocado's focused until that point, and she was
just like God like, go for it. So met with
my manager, did the whole interview process with HR. They
talked to our managing director at the time to see
whether I'd be a good fast and everyone was just like, Yep,

(04:35):
she can do that, she can mail it. So I've
been in the role for two years now and yeah,
just been a bit of a journey learning Kiwi fruit
and learning the different industry and different challenges. But it's
been enjoyable.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
So tell us a little bit about when you make
a pivot in your career and you're starting out fresh again.
How do you ex keep that transition successfully From what
you've experienced. Have you had champions or helpers or mentors
along the way. What are some of the challenges and
opportunities that you've had.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
So I've been very fortunate the company that I'm with.
I've had a lot of people fellow co workers who
just kind of back you. They see something in you
and they think, yep, God, you can do it. I've
also had to learn just to back myself. I think
I don't know whether it's being gang in the industry,

(05:33):
being a woman in the industry, but a lot of
times I think you can guess myself and think, oh, no,
like I can't actually do that. And it's probably only
been over the last two years I've realized no, like,
I'm not here in my role in my career out
of pure luck. I'm here because people listen to what
I have to say, because people find my input valuable.

(05:55):
It's not just being luck to get here.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
For a certain extent, some of it has definitely been luck,
but it's actually been that knowledge, the skill set, everything
like that behind me, and that's probably been what's given
me that I don't know, willingness to put myself out
there and make those changes, going from Evocado's to Kiwi Fruit,
to go for a role that at the time I

(06:18):
was like, I don't think I'm actually ready for it,
but turns out, hey, I was.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, And there's a lot of transferrable skills in that
space too, right, So you're you know, it's relationship management.
It's getting people to trust your knowledge and how they
can sort of leverage that knowledge to be better in
their own businesses. And yeah, and talk to us a
little bit about So I know, you won the Young
Girl of the Year, which must have been a really

(06:47):
nice feeling, particularly as we're talking about you know, that
challenge of believing in yourself, and that's a really awesome
way to kind of tick that box and say, hey,
actually I am competent. So talk us through that process,
like what did you do? How did that come about?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, so it was actually twenty twenty is when I
competed regionally. So we go forward through the twenty Younger
of the Year competition and I have said to absolutely
everyone who is around me, I don't want to win it.
I want to go in. I want to get second,
maybe fad like, use this years and experience and then
go compete again, because you can if you don't want

(07:24):
it regionals, you can go back and compete again. And
so when on the night of the gala dinner that
it was an outside won, it was kind of that
of God's moment, like what have I done well? It
definitely wasn't expected. It as an amazing competition to be
a part of the people that you meet and the
contestants that you go up against are pretty incredible. So

(07:47):
twenty twenty, of course we had COVID, so they didn't
actually do nationals until twenty twenty one, so everything kind
of got delayed and you kind of forget about it
because you just get on with your day to day.
And then twenty one came along batually had another rounded regionals,
so we had another contestants from the Bay, so the
end of up being seven of us total, and we

(08:09):
all went down to Wellington and I just remember talking
to my husband and saying, but there's no way I'm
going to win it, Like, these people are incredible, they
are the best of the best. Really, let's just use
this as a fun weekend away. My flight's got paid for,
we go hotel, like, let's just make the most of it.

(08:30):
And then spent that day the competition day, just hey,
given me a go, Like, who knows I might win,
I might not win. We'll just put my best goot forward.
And so again, when they started announcing the winners at
the gala dinner, I was just like, God, I've done
it again. And yeah, it was a pretty surreal. It's

(08:51):
a surreal thing to win, but also so incredible that
so I've been it was the twenty twenty one winner
or twenty nineteen winner. She was from the Bay twenty
the twenty eighteen winner is someone I work very very
closely with on my day to day. So there's this

(09:11):
kind of group of women champions and the young girl
competition at the moment, and it's so amazing.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah the girls, Yeah, I love that, Hi, And so
you have had such a journey right from winning this
title and then.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
As part of that also having the pivot into more
of the Kiwi Fruit space. And now as we're talking
to you're currently on maternity leave. Yes, talks a little
bit about that journey. How has that been for you?

Speaker 3 (09:46):
So I've again my company's been amazing and super supportive
of it. It was I think the thing that I
look back on is when I found out I was
actually pregnant, I had this guilt that I was letting
my team down. Like God, I wasn't going to be
there for the harvest. I was actually my due date
was March thirtious, so I was literally missing the main

(10:09):
main taxt for Kiwi Fruit. So timed it very well
in that sense, but very poorly for supporting my team
and everything like that. So there was this massive guilt
that I wasn't going to be there. I had just
kind of started off in this new role in everything
like that, and telling my manager was one of the

(10:30):
hardest things I'd done because I just I felt like
I was disappointing him. And I talked to him probably
once my little boy Tom arrived and he was like,
you weren't. Not once did we think, oh, myles letting
us down. We were excited for the fact that you
were starting this new journey, that you were going to
be a mum, that you're going to have a little baby.
Like it was just I don't know, it was so

(10:51):
such a twisted thought process that I thought, as a
female in my role, I was letting people down because
I'd chosen to go have a family.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
That makes sense, Yeah, it does, it does.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
And I don't know how looking back, I would have
changed that.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, it's different, isn't it, Because as once you have
a child, it changes the lens from which you look
at things. And I've experienced the same. I think before children,
you know, you think that you can get really involved
in your career, it can become your identity, and then
you kind of place those internal pressures upon yourself. Yeah,

(11:29):
and it's not until I've had my children that I've
realized actually that was self imposed.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
One hundred percent. And I think that was one of
the things I struggled with, probably and that first three
weeks postpartum, is that I had been so used to
being in career now being that person that you could
come to with an issue and I'd solve that and
having those like robust conversations with growers and getting all
of that knowledge, I mean all of a sudden kind

(11:56):
of being like, oh God, right, Like that's not who
I am anymore. I'm a mum, Like I'm a lot
of what I do on my day to day now
is about getting this little sack of potatoes essentially thriving,
because realistically he wasn't really doing anything for the first
week weep it, and that was such a I think
it was quite hard for me figuring out what my

(12:18):
new identity is. I don't know if I've necessarily found
it yet, but going back, I wouldn't change it for
the world.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's definitely a journey, I think, in terms of depending
on the stage that you're in, trying to find that
identity and trying to work out who you are in
this new world that you're living in versus when you
return to work the old person that you were, and
maybe some of those expectations of how you behaved versus

(12:49):
the new Year's exactly general.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
It's one of the things that I felt because I've
made so many changes and had worked so hard to
where it was my career. It was almost like I
don't want to be left behind. The chemi fruit industry
works so quickly and things changed in every season we're
dealing with new challenges. It was just that feeling of
oh no, what if I'm least behind, Like what if

(13:13):
I'm not valuable when I go back, And it's just
you don't get to where you are. With both that
thought process, it's something that I definitely need to change.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, and also I think surrounding yourself with people who
made me have been through the similar thing, you know,
the really career minded people who are like, hey, you
know what it is. It's very very normal to go
out and have a family. But one of the things
that I've just picked up I'm interested in you're obviously
really good at building relationships that the roles that you've

(13:45):
had are very centered around there. And just a couple
of those comments from your team around you know, we're
really excited for you to be stepping into motherhood. What
do you think are sort of the cornerstones of building
really good relationships and kind of what things have you
done that have sort of helped you on that journey,
Because I think it's something that everybody, well, everybody needs

(14:10):
to do it in one way or another, and some
people obviously have a little bit of a natural affinity
for it.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
I think I don't know whether it's just my approach
to building those relationships, but I like to take the
approach of I want to learn about you personally before
I learn about you professionally. So what's driving you to
make the decisions that you're trying to do. Do you
have a family behind you? Do you have kids? Like,
what do you like to do in your spare time?
Because it's so important to have those professional discussions and

(14:43):
talk about those challenges and everything like that. But actually
we can't forget what drives the people's day to day.
So if you've got three kids at home, I know
that I shouldn't be bringing you pass by thirty at
night because that's probably good time and everything like that.
And so that's been something really strong. I often joke
with my work colleagues that I'm the personality higher. I'm

(15:04):
the one that likes to talk a whole lot of
rubbish before we get down to business. And I know
that that doesn't work for everyone. So some people they
don't like that small talk. They just want to get
straight to the point, and it's all about adapting how
you interact and how you deal with each of those
different personality styles and how they like to work. So
it's been something that I've definitely had to work on

(15:25):
because not everyone likes that approach and it's tailor tailor,
and how you're trying to build those relationships based on
that individual.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
That humanistic approach is so so important, isn't it, Because
we are humans at the whole crux of life and
so we have I think it's so important to remember
that everyone's got a life outside of the current situation
that they're showing up in and to recognize that is

(15:53):
the first thing.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, and it also helps because God, you don't know
what's happened for that person to nine am. They might
come to work and they might not be putting your
best foot forward because of something. And it's very easy
to judge when you're in that full on harvest moment, like, oh,
this person's letting us down, but actually you don't know
what's going on behind clostals.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
So, speaking of harvest and all things horticulture, I'm keen
to understand from you, what do you think the future
of the horticulture space looks like in your view.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
In my view, I think we've got very exciting times,
a huge having that involvement with young grower and seeing
the talent that we have coming through in the industry.
I think that the horticulture is going to be inside hands.
We've got amazing talent. But I think the rest that
we have at the moment is that there is so

(16:49):
much knowledge with that older generation. There are people that
I can bring and ask a question and they can
recall from nineteen ninety three the weather was doing that
than we had this season and harvest went like that.
I don't have that. I wasn't born in nineteen ninety three.
I don't know what happened then. So it's trying to
figure out how we're actually going to foster that knowledge

(17:10):
and how are we going to get that passed on.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
That's such a great point that you make. I experience
this all the time when thinking about weather and the
impacts in my role for what I do, And you're
so right. There are some amazing people out there with
such a memory for how things have transpired in the past,
and it's so so helpful. How do you think we
can support that transition and extract that knowledge.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
Oh, that is a tough one. I think it's supporting
people's journey, identifying that not everyone's actually gotten into horticulture
because they've grown up on an orches. There's people like
me who have grown up in cities and towns and
we're are wanting to step on doors onto sorry, we
want to step outdoors and into those spaces put kind

(18:01):
of fostering that and supporting it and having things like
young grower having field days and these opportunities where you
can actually get everyone out on orchard and have those
rowbucks discussions and actually facilitate those questions as well.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, and I think to like, I'm also thinking about
the other side of it, which is kind of an
area of interest for me around sort of that land
use and the changing face of New Zealand's wider primary industries. Right,
So it's how do we transfer the generational land or

(18:40):
how do we how do we make kind of that
next generation of growers across the board successful And there
are some challenges there.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
But definitely definitely, and I think one of the challenges
that we have is that whole social license to operate.
We're constantly having to not prove, but almost just to
find what we're doing on our land. And I think
that's where an exciting opportunity where our younger generation comes along,
because we do care about what's happening, we care about

(19:10):
the future, we care about what's happening in that environmental space.
So hopefully by having those younger people, the younger skill
sets coming through, we can actually portray that to our
consumers because we need to be able to almost take
them on that journey as well. Like, no one gets
into horticulture because they want to destroy the environment. Everyone's

(19:31):
doing it because they've got that love for the environment
the respect for it as well.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, and also like, and you might have some perspective
on this because I'm not super clued up in the
hot space, but I'm sure, I'm sure that technology is
going to form quite a big part of where we're going.
I mean, I know there's a lot going on with
electrification and perhaps that's something that could keep us moving forward.
Have you got any insights into that space at all.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
A little bit, So, we've got some really exciting things
going on in terms of crop information, So there's technology
there that's going to make that day to day running
of the orchard a bit easier, but also planning for
people like myself knowing how much we're getting into our
post pas facilities. But there's so much going on in

(20:21):
that technology space and things that are being developed and
products that are being developed that will be slightly easier
on the environment. Yeah, it's definitely an exciting place to
be in.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Speaking of exciting places, you are still currently on maternity
leave from what we've just talked about, and obviously you're
going to have a lot of change ahead of you
still again, but I'm really intrigued, where do you see
yourself in the next year or the next few years.

(20:55):
What's next for mal.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
I don't know. My husband and I we have a
bit of a saying we like to chew off or
we like to bite off more than making sure, and
they're just true, like how where Yeah, there's a lot
going on in that background. We've actually got a plumbing
business that we're in there free now. We've of course
got a little boy, We've got a house that's half renovated.

(21:22):
We just I think we have that all in approach.
So what's in the future for me? I'll tell you
in three year's time, We'll just take it as it
is and see what comes up.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
I love that saying too, like hell, and I'm just
hoping for you that there's no choking involved.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah exactly, or someone knows how to give that old
time with maneuver.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah. Hey, Mel, thank you so much for your time today.
Like you have just come across as such a go getter.
We love your approach to the industry, the excitement that
you show for the future, and also that connection that
you've got other young growers in that space. And I think,
like you say, there are great things ahead for New

(22:06):
Zealand horticulture across those different different types. And yeah, we
just have loved having you on the Black Heels and
Tractors podcast this morning.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, thank you for having me