Sprouting business is all about good looks

Rollison and his wife Stephanie sell about two-three tonnes of these vegetables every day and he says it’s the appearance that counts.

“It’s a shame because we have shifted from taste to looks. Everything has to look good.  That’s what the retail market wants,” he told Rural News. 

Bruce and Stephanie are graduates of Lincoln University: Bruce did an ag commerce degree and Stephanie one in ag science. Initially, Bruce worked in the tourism sector and Stephanie as a fertiliser and agronomy rep around Ohakune. 

Both come from farms: Bruce off a South Canterbury arable property and Stephanie a Hawkes Bay sheep and beef farm. Their farming backgrounds drew them back to the land to raise their children.

Ohakune is well known for growing carrots and potatoes. But now sheep and beef, and even dairying, as well as sprouts and parsnips, are prominent. The decision to buy this particular business came somewhat out of left field, Bruce says. It was owned by a family who decided it was time to move out of the industry. 

“We were looking at purchasing a house locally and we went past this place, which Stephanie knew well because of her job. It was let slip that it was for sale and she arrived home that night and said, ‘do we want to grow Brussel sprouts and parsnips?’  I couldn’t believe what had come out of her mouth and that was the last thing I expected. But, to cut long story short, we ended up purchasing the operation from people we knew and they were involved in the first year of our operation which was great.” 

That was 15 years ago and since then they have been planting a bigger area – 40ha each of parsnips and Brussel sprouts – and sell these to the supermarket chains Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs. Unlike some other growers they don’t have contracts, instead taking orders day by day.

“We get phone calls for product. The supermarkets chains have relationships with our wholesaler, in our case mainly Turners & Growers, and they say ‘we need this many crates of whatever’,” Rollison explains. 

“That happens on a daily basis so we are out in the morning picking those vegetables. We still hand pick Brussel sprouts and the parsnips are machine lifted then hand-picked.” 

It’s a five-day-a-week operation, but they also pack on Sundays to get product to the supermarkets on Mondays. 

Pick, pack, process

Picking is done in the morning and afternoon, with staff in the packhouse grading the product. 

The larger sprouts grow at the bottom of the vegetable and small ones near the top; often the top ones are left a few weeks longer to grow bigger.

There are three grades: larger or ‘table size’, medium and very small. The table size sprouts are usually found loose on supermarket shelves. The very small ones go to restaurants. But there is increasing demand for the medium-small sprouts.

 “We put these in pre-packed bags and that is becoming an important and larger part of our business. Five years ago we’d be lucky to sell 5% of our product that way, today it would be 40% of our market,” Rollison explains. 

“People just want to pick a bag off the shelf, know it’s fresh and… walk, unless they have time to look and fill up a bag of loose product. This is the same in all product lines – not just ours. People do the same with potatoes, carrots and other vegetables.”