March 30, 2025 • 5 mins
We talk to a high-profile grower about cherry exports hitting a new milestone, surpassing 5000 tonnes. The previous volume record was slightly over 4200 tonnes set in the 2017/18 season, and last year, growers produced 3800 tonnes. This year’s exports fetched about $124 million for New Zealand, the first time exports have exceeded $100 million.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's the most famous cherry grower I know. His name
is Mike Casey out of Central Otago, just up the
road from Cromwell.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
There.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
He's the electric cherry guy. He wants to electrify everything. Hey, Mike.
Cherry exports, as we found out last week at a
new milestone, surpassing five thousand tons exported for the first
time in the industry's history, had beat the previous volume
record of two hundred tons in the twenty seventeen twenty
(00:29):
eighteen season, and this year's exports fetched one hundred and
twenty four million dollars, the first time the exports have
been valued at more than one hundred million. How much
of that one hundred and twenty four million did you
get your hot little hands on?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A tiny little fortune. But I have to say the
cherry industry in Central Otago has been been buzzing with
this season. I think it's been a fantastic season of
good export prices in the market. We didn't have a
lot of frost, we didn't have too much in the
way of rain after Christmas, and we got a really
good quality cross up. Numbers were up, and yeah, I
think just growers are getting better and better at growing
(01:05):
the world's best cherries here in Central. So yeah, pretty
thrilled with the results for everyone. Really.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I got a mate up in Blend and Blair, Blizzard MacLean,
I don't know if you know him. He's got a
cherry orchard up there. He would argue, you can still
grow good cherries in Marlborough or even Hawks Bay.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well. The advantage of Marlboro at the Hawks Bay, of
course is they come off a lot earlier. And one
thing that New Zealanders are addicted to is cherries at
Christmas time, and it's hard for us in Central to
really get good quality cherries off of Christmas. Some growers
do a pretty good job at it. Are different regions
that are a bit further north that are a bit normal,
but Warmers their cherries come on a bit earlier, So
different advantages, two different growers, I guess, and us in
(01:43):
Central we're mainly focused on that export market, and you know,
it works really well harvesting cherries mid to late January
and getting them to China for Chinese New Year.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So, as I said, five thousand tons being exported for
the first time. Last year we produced only three thousand,
eight hundred tons so you've obviously found the home for
it all, and by the looks of things, that home
is largely Taiwan.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well hopefully. Tom McClay is very proud of us cherry
growers because we're trying to double export revenue, and cherry
growers have gone a long way to you know, helping
make that happen in our own small little way. But yeah,
I think cherries in New Zealand or New Zealand grow
and cherries have this very strong reputation overseas. Cherries are
a luxury product they use as a gifting product. New
(02:25):
Zealand cherries hold their own against other cherries that come
from the Southern Hemisphere, South America and even out of Australia.
We've got the best cheries on the market. And so
in a way, there's a really opportunity at the moment
for cherries an age where we just don't seem to
be getting sort of that market ste that might come
one day, but at the moment, I think there's still
(02:46):
plenty a room for other people that wanting to get
into cherry growing in New Zealand, and you know, hopefully
we continue to grow the industry.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So Taiwan takes forty six percent of our total exports China,
followed by China with just fifty I thought that number
would have been higher.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, Like I mean, we sell most of ours
into Taiwan. We've got some very good relationships for the
number of Taiwanese buyers over over there. I don't know.
I've only been in the cherry game for five years,
so I do to really know the full history around
why Taiwan takes so many more news non cherries and
saying much larg with larger market like China. But it's
good to see China's growing. We'll see some of the
(03:23):
other countries that take our cherit those markets are growing too,
because you know, the more diverse to market, the more
resilient we've become.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Mike, you're the electric chery guy. Everything's electrified on your farm.
You're effectively growing zero carbon cherries, or I assume you are.
How much of a premium or what sort of premium
can you get for that?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I'd be telling a lie if I said that I've
seen or a strong evidence of a premium. I've had
managed to open a couple of doors with going in
and talking to specific buyers about what we're doing, but
I don't think there's much of a premium yet. But
what it's done for me on the other side is
just lower our imput costs. And so one thing about
this year compared to last year is our costs were
(04:04):
generally quite a bit higher. You know, instead of paying
five dollars fifty a bucket for a picket to come
pick cherries, the fee was about six bucks a bucket.
The packing costs for slightly higher. You know, that's all
just due to on farm costs continuing to rise, and
so you know, being able to push down some of
those imput costs through using electric machinesssil fuel machines has
been something that's worked really well. But it's really about
(04:25):
our bottom line rather than the top line at the moment.
And maybe one days more and more farmers start to
do this, you know, New Zealm might get a bit
of a reputation for electric food, which would be cool.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I was going to chat to you on Friday's show
about the story, but you were unavailable. You were petitioning
politicians in Wellington about going electric.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
This is it's really about the energy system in New
Zealand and making sure we build out the cheapest and
most resilient energy system. And so you know, half the
problem that I have at the moment is trying to
convince people go to electric electric machines. But our electricity
industry is really kind of not serve to New Zealand
people in the way that it should at the moment
nature to a number of different reasons. So I'm just
(05:05):
in there trying to represent farmers, trying to represent the
average customer of New Zealand and try and make sure
that the energy system we build out moving forward is
actually one that is resilient and cheap and renewable and
ultimately allows us to grow our economy because at the
moment it's pretty expensive and it doesn't need to be.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, and why the hell we import Indonesian coals?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Beyond me, I one hundred percent agree with you. I
can tell you exactly why we do it, because when
we start to run out of water at our storage lakes,
we've got no option. And so really it comes down
to how do we generate other types of electricity so
we can hold onto that water for longer. And I'm
all about getting rid of that Indonesian coal as soon
as we possibly can. But I think that's a system
of just a symptom of just terrible planning in our
(05:47):
energy sector.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Mike Casey, you're a great thought leader. Appreciate some of
your thoughts here today on the Country.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's always a pleasure to be on and ugin Jaimie,
thank you very much.
Here's the most famous cherry grower I know. His name
is Mike Casey out of Central Otago, just up the
road from Cromwell.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
There.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
He's the electric cherry guy. He wants to electrify everything. Hey, Mike.
Cherry exports, as we found out last week at a
new milestone, surpassing five thousand tons exported for the first
time in the industry's history, had beat the previous volume
record of two hundred tons in the twenty seventeen twenty
(00:29):
eighteen season, and this year's exports fetched one hundred and
twenty four million dollars, the first time the exports have
been valued at more than one hundred million. How much
of that one hundred and twenty four million did you
get your hot little hands on?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A tiny little fortune. But I have to say the
cherry industry in Central Otago has been been buzzing with
this season. I think it's been a fantastic season of
good export prices in the market. We didn't have a
lot of frost, we didn't have too much in the
way of rain after Christmas, and we got a really
good quality cross up. Numbers were up, and yeah, I
think just growers are getting better and better at growing
(01:05):
the world's best cherries here in Central. So yeah, pretty
thrilled with the results for everyone. Really.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I got a mate up in Blend and Blair, Blizzard MacLean,
I don't know if you know him. He's got a
cherry orchard up there. He would argue, you can still
grow good cherries in Marlborough or even Hawks Bay.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well. The advantage of Marlboro at the Hawks Bay, of
course is they come off a lot earlier. And one
thing that New Zealanders are addicted to is cherries at
Christmas time, and it's hard for us in Central to
really get good quality cherries off of Christmas. Some growers
do a pretty good job at it. Are different regions
that are a bit further north that are a bit normal,
but Warmers their cherries come on a bit earlier, So
different advantages, two different growers, I guess, and us in
(01:43):
Central we're mainly focused on that export market, and you know,
it works really well harvesting cherries mid to late January
and getting them to China for Chinese New Year.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So, as I said, five thousand tons being exported for
the first time. Last year we produced only three thousand,
eight hundred tons so you've obviously found the home for
it all, and by the looks of things, that home
is largely Taiwan.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well hopefully. Tom McClay is very proud of us cherry
growers because we're trying to double export revenue, and cherry
growers have gone a long way to you know, helping
make that happen in our own small little way. But yeah,
I think cherries in New Zealand or New Zealand grow
and cherries have this very strong reputation overseas. Cherries are
a luxury product they use as a gifting product. New
(02:25):
Zealand cherries hold their own against other cherries that come
from the Southern Hemisphere, South America and even out of Australia.
We've got the best cheries on the market. And so
in a way, there's a really opportunity at the moment
for cherries an age where we just don't seem to
be getting sort of that market ste that might come
one day, but at the moment, I think there's still
(02:46):
plenty a room for other people that wanting to get
into cherry growing in New Zealand, and you know, hopefully
we continue to grow the industry.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So Taiwan takes forty six percent of our total exports China,
followed by China with just fifty I thought that number
would have been higher.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, Like I mean, we sell most of ours
into Taiwan. We've got some very good relationships for the
number of Taiwanese buyers over over there. I don't know.
I've only been in the cherry game for five years,
so I do to really know the full history around
why Taiwan takes so many more news non cherries and
saying much larg with larger market like China. But it's
good to see China's growing. We'll see some of the
(03:23):
other countries that take our cherit those markets are growing too,
because you know, the more diverse to market, the more
resilient we've become.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Mike, you're the electric chery guy. Everything's electrified on your farm.
You're effectively growing zero carbon cherries, or I assume you are.
How much of a premium or what sort of premium
can you get for that?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I'd be telling a lie if I said that I've
seen or a strong evidence of a premium. I've had
managed to open a couple of doors with going in
and talking to specific buyers about what we're doing, but
I don't think there's much of a premium yet. But
what it's done for me on the other side is
just lower our imput costs. And so one thing about
this year compared to last year is our costs were
(04:04):
generally quite a bit higher. You know, instead of paying
five dollars fifty a bucket for a picket to come
pick cherries, the fee was about six bucks a bucket.
The packing costs for slightly higher. You know, that's all
just due to on farm costs continuing to rise, and
so you know, being able to push down some of
those imput costs through using electric machinesssil fuel machines has
been something that's worked really well. But it's really about
(04:25):
our bottom line rather than the top line at the moment.
And maybe one days more and more farmers start to
do this, you know, New Zealm might get a bit
of a reputation for electric food, which would be cool.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I was going to chat to you on Friday's show
about the story, but you were unavailable. You were petitioning
politicians in Wellington about going electric.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
This is it's really about the energy system in New
Zealand and making sure we build out the cheapest and
most resilient energy system. And so you know, half the
problem that I have at the moment is trying to
convince people go to electric electric machines. But our electricity
industry is really kind of not serve to New Zealand
people in the way that it should at the moment
nature to a number of different reasons. So I'm just
(05:05):
in there trying to represent farmers, trying to represent the
average customer of New Zealand and try and make sure
that the energy system we build out moving forward is
actually one that is resilient and cheap and renewable and
ultimately allows us to grow our economy because at the
moment it's pretty expensive and it doesn't need to be.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, and why the hell we import Indonesian coals?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Beyond me, I one hundred percent agree with you. I
can tell you exactly why we do it, because when
we start to run out of water at our storage lakes,
we've got no option. And so really it comes down
to how do we generate other types of electricity so
we can hold onto that water for longer. And I'm
all about getting rid of that Indonesian coal as soon
as we possibly can. But I think that's a system
of just a symptom of just terrible planning in our
(05:47):
energy sector.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Mike Casey, you're a great thought leader. Appreciate some of
your thoughts here today on the Country.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's always a pleasure to be on and ugin Jaimie,
thank you very much.
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