AS OTHERS SEE US

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32297, 15 May 1970, Page 8

AS OTHERS SEE US

A whole new dimension ' was opened up before us when we drove our rattle-trap-like car from Taupo to Hawke’s Bay. Hawke’s Bay is Wattie Country—or, more correctly, the country of J. Wattie Canneries, Ltd. The story iof this firm is an all-New Zealand story of success, achieved after overcoming many difficulties and disasters along the way. In 1934 Mr James Wattie (now Sir James) collected £1250 from 28 investors, and started pulping surplus fruit from local orchards in a small wooden house. He sent the product to a jammaking firm in Auckland. In the set of accounts published while we were in New Zealand, Wattles and their associated companies exported canned and frozen foods to the value of $3,841,058. Fruit and vegetables were only the beginning of the business they also produce ice-creams, oven-ready chickens, flours, pastries, jellies, soups, spreads of various sorts, dog and cat and baby foods—and they never get their labels mixed. They boast the largest peach and pear orchards in New Zealand and by far the biggest asparagus block. They own a fleet of fishing and have a can factory producing nearly 150 million cans a year. I went to their cannery at Hastings, and saw them taking in peas and asparagus. They were going quietly, receiving only 250 tons of peas that day. They can process up to 500 tons a day. Between 60 and 90 minutes after leaving the field these peas are tinned and ready to leave the factory, all the peas being grown within. 15 miles of Wattle’s gates. In the short peach harvest —only 3 or 4 weeks—they handle nearly 10,000 tons at a rate of up to 400 tons a day. Pears, strawberries, beetroot, beans, asparagus, carrots, plums, tomatoes (20,000 tons of them) —the list is staggering. Obviously a high degree of planning has to go into the planting of all these crops, and those growers who get Wattie contracts

TIW» is a lurther excerpt from an article in an agricultural supplement of the “Tweeddale Press" written by Mr Charles Baker-Cress-well, an English farmer who visited New Zealand late last year. have to accept a high degree of discipline. But this happens in all large scale fruit and vegetable ventures. I went round a good few farms where the owners were growing for Wattie’s, and it was a great experience. It is, of course, the most beautiful land, but it is essential to study a soil map before you go off and buy your farm there. The soil types vary very sharply within small distances—be prepared to pay between £4OO-£lOOO per acre. Wattie’s say that people are paying too much for land, and so

are expecting too much for their products. The development of Wattie’s Cannery has obviously added enormously to the value of land in the area. The sort of production figures which were being talked about were 12 tons of peaches to the acre (with trees producing a good picking at three years and full production at four). Thirty tons of tomatoes, two tons of asparagus—on and on went the miracle list—the only way to keep one’s mouth from hanging open in awe and admiration was to stuff it full of some of the luscious things that were being discussed. Some Californian orchardists had recently visited Hawke's Bay and admitted that the area was more favourable than their own. (To be concluded.)