Pink bales strike a chord in the heartland

 The initiative, dreamed up by crop packaging supplier Agpac has seen the appearance of pink and black bales of hay and silage near highways around the country. The aim is to get people talking about women's health and in particular breast cancer prevention.

Agpac general manager Chris Dawson says his company worked with its overseas suppliers to develop the pink wrap and pink and black netwrap.

"The limited supply of the pink silage wrap and pink and black netwrap we had this year is selling very well," Dawson says.

"The support we have received from farmers, contractors and from rural newspapers that have picked up the story has been very gratifying."

Dawson says Agpac sales representatives requested that contractors who bought the pink wrap should supply it to farms near major roadways so the pink bales would be very visible.

Te Awamutu contractor Maurice Forkert was one of those who supplied the pink wrap. He says it was very popular with his dairy farmer clients and especially their wives.

"It was all sold by word of mouth. One the farmers who bought it wasn't so keen at first but his daughter insisted and he came around," Forkert says.

Dawson says many of those who ordered the pink products have a wife, mother or sister who has had an experience with breast cancer.

A percentage of the sales of the pink products will go to charitable trust Sweet Louise, which provides practical support for Kiwi women with secondary breast cancer and their families.

Sweet Louise CEO Fiona Hatton says she is thrilled that Agpac wants to support the organisation.

"We are still a small organisation, and we would never manage to do the kind of marketing in rural areas that the pink bale initiative has achieved," Hatton says.

The success of the initiative has caught the interest of other rural communities around the world. Dawson says that Israeli company Tama, who supplied the pink and black netwrap, is now rolling it out in Europe and Israel.

Agpac's Australian parent company, Tapex has also run with the idea and is promoting breast cancer awareness to rural communities in Australia.

Next year Agpac will also add a blue bale wrap to raise awareness of men's health and prostate cancer in support of Prostate Cancer Foundation NZ.
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