Dr Mike Nichols, a retired vegetable specialist who spent 40 years teaching at Massey University, has been experimenting with winter strawberries. He has now announced an 18-month experiment of growing and harvesting strawberries year-round has been successful.

A battery-powered fully-autonomous robot system, which can scan kiwifruit orchards and offer growers a full picture of their crop via accurate data, drew the interest of many in the horticultural industry at Fieldays.

Avocados have different stages of ripening and growers, shippers, as well as retailers, want to offer an avocado at the perfect stage of ripening to ensure a high-quality eating experience.

Seeka Limited [NZX:SEK] advises that it has today released an information memorandum and process to sell nine orchards, including the six orchards recently acquired from Turners and Growers Horticulture Limited.

One of New Zealand’s leading mushroom growers says demand for its produce typically increases throughout the winter months.

Between August 21 and October 11 last year, two men stole avocados from Gisborne orchards, worth about $22,000. It was a series of planned thefts that involved up to five people.

The NZ Super Fund has invested in international fresh fruit and vegetable grower and marketer NZ Gourmet (www.nzgourmet.net), taking a 27% stake in the company for an undisclosed price.

Lisa, an orchard operations assistant at Bostock NZ has emerged victorious against seven other entrants to be named Hawke’s Bay’s Young Fruit Grower of 2018.

The New Zealand High court has found that the Ministry of Primary Industries (formally MAF) was negligent in allowing the Psa disease into New Zealand in 2009.

With the world facing up to feeding almost 10 billion people by 2050, a new joint venture, Global Pac Technologies, has launched a hi-tech automated robotic apple packer to help meet the global challenges of processing increasing quantities of fresh produce.