Commercial vegetable growers smile with fine weather

This story first appeared on stuff.co.nz. Click here to view full story.

Spring weather for vegetable growing has been exceptional, commercial growers Matthew Malcolm and Brendan Hamilton say.

Both men are making the most of the fine weather with bulk growing and harvesting for buyers throughout the country and overseas.

Malcolm, a fourth-generation grower, and wife Jill grow carrots and parsnips at Southern Cross Produce near Woodlands. Hamilton and Brent Lamb bought the Branxholme-based Pyper's Produce in 2007 and specialise in carrots and potatoes. 

"It's been a great spring," Malcolm said - and he's likely to turn on his irrigation system this week. 

"The forecast is for fine weather for the next two weeks."  

Being an experienced grower, Malcolm knows what it's like to have the weather go against him, as he found out in 2009. 

"It was a wet autumn, caused a lot of disease [in the soil] and affected the whole season's crop.

"We learned from that where disease came from and how to deal with it."

Within one hour of being picked, Malcolm's carrots are washed and in a chiller, awaiting transport to markets the next day. 

Most of Malcolm's pickers at this time of year are students who live nearby and are home from university. For some, it has been a holiday job for four or five years.

Operations manager Regan Queale is in his 20th year with the company. 

No weekend work is done, unless it's the Saturday and Sunday before Christmas Day. In the week leading up to Christmas, some staff could do 10 to 12-hour shifts.

About 500kg of parsnips are exported to Hong Kong and Singapore weekly.  

"Carrots and parsnips work well for us, they work well in Southland [conditions]," Malcolm said.

The carrots are grown from seed imported from Europe, while 90 per cent of the parsnip seeds are produced at Southern Cross Produce.

Pyper's Produce has been in business for more than 50 years.

Hamilton said his business grew about 7500 potatoes and 10,000 carrots yearly for South Island and overseas markets. 

"We export carrots worldwide ... to Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia," Hamilton said.

His potatoes are sold to markets throughout the South Island. 

"We concentrate on potatoes and carrots to keep our brand strong."