Amid the ongoing clean-up and planning strategies to cope with a more volatile climate, two major orchards are demonstrating how to use post-harvest and packhouse technology as a buffer to protect the output of the region’s fruit growers and prepare for growth.
Tech innovation is critically important to horticulture to establish a greater profile in the national economy to meet growing global demand, especially through New Zealand’s new free trade agreement with India.
For the year to 30 June 2025, horticulture’s export revenue is projected to hit a record $8.5 billion with a target of $10 billion by 2029 – driven primarily by kiwifruit and apple exports.
There is strong growth potential in the apple export market, particularly as new trade opportunities open up. Growers are positive about the FTA with India, which is a significant growth market for New Zealand apples and has the potential to become an important part of New Zealand’s export strategy.
Century of innovation
The Fulford family has been orcharding for 112 years and started Omahuri Orchard more than 50 years ago in the early 1970s. Omahuri operates in the Hastings/Havelock North area and spans more than 55 hectares across four sites.
The orchards grow around 36 varieties of fruit, and pack out over 2740 tonnes annually. Around 2,200 tonnes of apples are exported internationally and about 540 tonnes of stone fruit (cherries, plums, nectarines, and peaches) are supplied to the local market.
“The outlook for the region’s apple growers is positive, with stable demand and encouraging export conditions contributing to industry confidence,”
“Importantly, a MAF Roda grader and internal defect technology now give us a strong foundation for scalability, so we have the quality control and operational flexibility to increase throughput in response to greater demand,” says Omahuri Orchard director Peter Fulford.
“Omahuri was fortunate to have come through Gabrielle with relatively minimal impact; the orchard had a 12-hour power outage and lost around 100 trees but recovered quickly,” says Fulford.
Over the past five years, Omahuri –- mindful of both weather-related and biosecurity risks –- has made key investments in post-harvest and packhouse technology.
“We installed the MAF Roda grader, which has been fully operational since the start of the 2019 season. Before this, our packhouse relied heavily on manual labour, with people responsible for grading, sorting and packing the fruit. While effective, this approach naturally had to allow for human error and inconsistency,” says Fulford.
“We now utilise internal defect sorting technology, which allows us to ‘look inside’ the fruit, assess the internal quality, and detect issues that aren’t visible externally. We also use Globalscan for external defects such as wind rub, bruising, sunburn, and other cosmetic defects.
“We can intercept and remove defective fruit early in the process, helping to protect quality and maintain consistency.
“As an automation-ready orchard with machinery such as hydro ladders instead of traditional ladders, our current technology and equipment enable us consistently to produce high-quality fruit while efficiently handling multiple sizes, grades, and packing speeds simultaneously.
“This level of precision and flexibility allows us to maximise throughput without compromising on quality — ultimately supporting stronger returns and improved operational efficiency across the business.
“We now have better visibility of our production and packhouse performance than in the past, which gives us stronger insights across the season. This helps us make more informed decisions around grading, quality, and throughput, ensuring we can consistently meet customer requirements,” he says
Productivity boost
”Hawkes Bay’s Kelston Orchards has operated as a family-owned business for more than 40 years, specialising in growing, packing and selling fresh apples for local and international markets.
Owner Tony Harington says that in 2020, the orchards’ packing operation was working 60-70 hours a week in response to rising global demand, but the business’ equipment was ageing.
“It was time to upgrade with top equipment and technology to enable much faster packing and ensure the infrastructure kept pace with the growth of the business.
“The result was a major upgrade to rebuild our packhouse facility and we put in a turnkey, state-of-the-art MAF Roda system designed to maximise value and pack multiple grades out of a bin.
“We built a big new cool store at the same time. More than half of the apples processed by Kelston Orchards are our own fruit, and the 2500-sqm packhouse facility includes a multi-lane feeding and optical grading system able to handle up to 60 bins per hour.
“We installed a six-lane pre-sort system feeding onto a four-lane commit-to-pack line, complete with all the conveyors and equipment for handling the boxes. With our old and new sizers, we have the versatility to do what we want.
“The whole upgrade had a major impact on our productivity — we are now packing almost half as much again in two thirds of the time. With 60 people in the packhouse we can put out as many as 10,000 cartons a day.
“My parents had a packhouse out of which we packed between 15 and 20,000 cartons a year. We just finished a season where we packed 635,000 cartons. When we’re not packing apples for export, the packhouse is used to support local summer fruit growers.”
Weather remains the primary challenge “luckily we lost only a few trees – but half he crop for the year in Cyclone Gabrielle,” says Harington.
About MAF Roda
Robotics and automation are transforming horticultural industries around the world. Automation is the only way to achieve greater efficiencies and stay competitive in today’s market. MAF NZ is a subsidiary of MAF Roda Agrobotic, the global leader in the automation of post-harvest processing of fruit and vegetable warehouses with more than 18 locations around the world. We specialise in designing, manufacturing and installing the equipment you need to grade, sort and pack your fresh fruit and vegetables. From the smallest cherries to the largest watermelons, we take care of your entire packing line so you can operate as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
