Forging a career in pears

Production levels and lack of research make pears a challenging business for young Kiwi leaders. However, the world is changing. New environmentally friendly methods offer fresh opportunities.

Justin Wehner says the lack of research is a challenge for growing pears

Not many young Kiwis forge a career in the pear industry, but at 26, Justin Wehner is the operations and production manager on a 50-hectare orchard in Tasman that grows mostly pears.

This is Justin’s second year in the role at Echodale Orchard, which is a fifth-generation orchard based on the edge of Richmond. The orchard spreads out over several blocks on the Waimea Plains and five years ago expanded to the Motueka Valley where 23ha is being planted solely in pears.

Justin’s introduction to horticulture began as a contract picker on Echodale Orchard to earn money to travel overseas. When he left, he was told there was a job to come back to after his travel stint. At that stage he had his sights set on becoming a vet, and it was not until he was studying that the orchard lured him back.

Instead of veterinary science, he headed to Lincoln with the support of Echodale to study horticulture science at Lincoln University, before taking up the assistant manager role for a year and then the next step to operations and production manager.

Pears remain the focus of the business. While other growers have stopped growing pears, Echodale is expanding production for the local market under its Nelson Fresh brand. Among the better-known varieties of Taylor’s Gold, Williams’ Bon Crétien, Beurre Bosc, Winter Nelis and Packham’s Triumph, grow Tosca, Morettini and Carmen. Justin says they are not convinced to include Piqa® Boo as a variety just yet as they believe it is a work in progress.

Among their pear varieties, Taylor’s Gold may be the most popular among customers, but Justin says it is the hardest to grow due to stubby stalks puncturing the softer fruit. For that reason, they pick Taylor’s Gold from a platform where they place the fruit on a conveyor belt to the bin to handle it as little as possible.

One of the biggest challenges for pear growers, says Justin, is the lack of research and new developments – which is not likely to improve as pear production around the country decreases. With little research, orchardists don’t have the option that apples have, of dwarf rootstocks, and consequently the pear trees keep growing.

“It means you have to be a lot more knowledgeable about how you manage your main tasks like pruning and tree training. The lack of research also means the health benefits are unknown – they are higher in fibre, iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc than apples, and have less sugar.”

The orchard represents decades of pear management, with some of the large, older trees still producing alongside T trellis and 2D systems that are now 2600 trees per hectare. At the new Motueka Valley block, the first trees were planted on T trellis and now they are all 2D for increased efficiencies and to be labour friendly.

Pears are still considerably lower in production than the apples in the orchard, which make up 15 percent of the mix. Whereas apples produce at least 100 tonnes of fruit per hectare, the pears deliver between 40 and 80 tonnes per hectare, which again reflects the lack of research put into pears.

Pears have their own challenges as well. It has been a humid summer in Tasman and that is the perfect environment for fireblight in pears, which needs to be constantly monitored and managed. It follows the orchard’s highest recorded rainfall last year combined with warmer winters.

“You do your best to cut the fireblight out and get rid of it, but you need a cold winter to shut the disease down, and winters are getting warmer. So my team needs to stay on top of it.”

This year Justin has spent more time training staff to identify fireblight early, with a specialised team removing diseased wood and often entire trees to keep the disease under control.

“Once it’s in the trunk, cut the tree out.”

The trees are healthy though, and Justin says tree removal and constant observation is their best management tool to fight fireblight. Good tree health, he says, is the same as good human health which means you are less likely to get sick.

He focuses on soil health and spreads bought-in composts through the orchard at the beginning of winter, giving it time to break down so it is readily available when the trees wake up in spring.

“We’re reducing herbicides, concentrating on compost and treating the soil as the first building block to a healthy orchard. To me, the future is looking after the soil and the key to longevity and productivity of a tree.”

Compost has been spread for three winters and Justin says the crop and soil layers seem to be improving and they can crop the trees a bit harder. It is a work in progress and he says they are still fine-tuning thinning to achieve the right balance. As well as reducing herbicides, they are reducing agrichemicals.

“The world is changing and people want to know what they’re eating and how it is grown, so I think agrichemicals will be phased out or have limited use by 2030, and I don’t think we will be able to use herbicides such as glyphosate either.

“We’re trialling new ways of growing a more environmentally-friendly crop.”

Technology such as robotics is a necessary part of horticulture’s evolution, to overcome the cost of labour and the challenge of sourcing enough people.

“Finding workers is a struggle and Kiwis don’t want to do it. Robotic pickers will be the future and in 20 years you will control everything from the office.”

Despite the labour challenges, the orchard has the advantage of beginning its pear harvest earlier than apples, and that gives it a head start finding pickers. The pear harvest kicks in with the early varieties from mid-January and the orchard gets a mix of Kiwis and backpackers. Though backpacker numbers are still low this year, the orchard had staff sorted in time to pick the pears – a fruit that carries a bit of weight.

“Pears are a lot heavier than apples – a bin of apples weighs about 380kg compared with a bin of pears which weighs about 450kg. Contract pickers start with the heavier pears and go to apples, and so they end up picking very well with apples.”

The orchard has customised its packhouse for pears, enabling the fruit to flow from the trees to the packhouse to retail. Using controlled atmosphere storage on the orchard and in nearby Richmond enables the business to sell pears 12 months of the year.

“When you see pears in shops around here, they’re probably ours.”

Pears have sometimes lacked the popularity of apples, and have generally been bought by the older generation. But Justin says younger people seem to be increasingly seeking out pears, which he says may be attributed to culinary shows using pears creatively, and also the health benefits from the fruit.

First published in the March 2023 issue of The Orchardist magazine. Author: Anne Hardie.