New Zealand’s largest family owned fruit business, The Yummy Fruit Company, last year posted the biggest loss in its 160-year history. Although the border is now starting to open up and Covid-19 restrictions are easing, these changes have realistically come too late to help the Hawke’s Bay business this year.
General manager Paul Paynter: “For now, it’s just a grind, just a matter of getting through the year and surviving. It’s not very ambitious. But that’s the reality of the hand we have been dealt for now.” About a third of Paynter’s workforce would normally be working holidaymakers, who he describes as “wonderful fit young people that want to travel the world and have fun times in New Zealand”. Two years ago he had 130, last year 18, and this year none.
Even once the apples are picked, staff shortages at local packhouses, some of which have only half their normal staff numbers, mean they are unlikely to be able to handle the wall of fruit that arrives at peak season, and containers are also likely to get backed up at the ports because ships are visiting less frequently or just not turning up.
With many costs like labor and shipping significantly higher, Paynter says he should be raising his prices by between 8 and 10 per cent just to stand still. But he’s not sure the market would pay that.
Source: stuff.co.nz
