Hawke's Bay teen helps rural families access affordable school uniforms
Hawke's Bay teenage entrepreneur Hugo Moffett is helping the rural community access cheaper school uniforms, all without leaving their homes.
Wattie’s says the latest tomato harvest season has seen some of the highest yielding tomato paddocks in the company’s 50-year history.
This season, Wattie’s says it hit a new record with a crop of 140 metric tons per hectare, the equivalent of 5.6kg per plant.
It makes for a 5% increase on the highest yield previously achieved and is 40% higher than Wattie’s 5-year average yield.
Twenty years ago, the 5-year average tomato harvest was 80 metric tons per hectare.
The tomato harvest season started in mid-February and since then has been going 24 hours a day. Over that time, Wattie’s harvested and processed 39,000 metric tons of field tomatoes.
Wattie’s managing director Neil Heffer says that collectively the company’s Hawke’s Bay tomato growers have contributed to a ‘bumper season’.
“Our harvest team have worked extremely hard to keep the machinery operating through several wet weather spells to maximise our yield from each tomato crop. We couldn’t be prouder of the team in delivering the key ingredient to many of our Wattie’s products,” Heffer says.
“We are fortunate to have a local family helping with the tomato harvest, a family that has done so for more than two decades. They operate the harvesters and tractors right through the harvest season, approximately 70 days, day and night and we are extremely grateful for their support again this year.”
Wattie’s tomatoes are used in products like tomato paste as well as peeled, diced and canned tomato products. Others are put through a tomato evaporator and turned into condensed tomato paste which is then used in soups, baked beans, and tinned spaghetti.
While opening the first electrode boiler at its Edendale site, Fonterra has announced a $70 million investment in two further new electrode boilers.
Fonterra says its ongoing legal battle with Australian processor Bega Cheese won’t change its divestment plans.
With an amendment to the Medicines Act proposing human medicines could be approved in 30 days if the product has approval from two recognised overseas jurisdictions, there’s a call for a similar approach where possible to be applied to some animal medicines.
The Government wants to make sure that rural communities get a level of service that people who live in cities often complacently expect.
As the New Zealand Government launches negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement with India, one Canterbury-based vegetable seed breeder is already benefiting from exporting to the world's fifth-largest economy.
Onenui Station on Mahia Peninsula in northern Hawke's Bay is a world first in more ways than one.
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