Ōpōtiki grower wins 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award
Brett Wotton, an Eastern Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor, has won the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for his work to support lifting fruit quality across the industry.
Industry-wide fruit production of G3 is set to increase to over 50 million trays over the next three years, due to the successful conversion of G3 in the Bay of Plenty's post-Psa environment.
To address this growth, DMS is increasing its coolstore facilities by a further 2,800 pallets, which will be ready for 2015. The company is also increasing its packhouse operations to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure growers will have their fruit packed at the optimum time.
Chief operating officer Derek Masters says DMS remains well placed to handle the increased volume and will continue to live up to its name as the G3 Champions.
"DMS has always been a firm advocate for G3 in the post-Psa environment, championing the variety as the road to recovery when many were lacking the confidence to try something new. We are now seeing that recovery come to fruition, which is extremely exciting for the industry," says Masters.
In the 2014 season DMS recorded a 0.037% onshore fruit loss on Zespri's 2014 scorecard for the G3 variety, compared to the industry average of 1.15%. This is on the back of 2013's similar results.
Masters says being medium-sized means; DMS is large enough to cope with the challenge of increased volumes, but small enough to adapt quickly to meet the changing environment.
