A specialised team within Fruitfed was established in Hawke’s Bay in 1998 to provide crop monitoring services to horticulturists in the region. This well-respected business unit, led by Hawke’s Bay based Fruitfed Crop Monitoring Manager Jimmy Bowden, has grown to a team of eight who co-ordinate crop monitoring teams at key vegetable, fruit and wine growing areas around the country.



Jimmy said, “Since we established the crop monitoring team 20 years ago it has gone from strength to strength. Co-ordinators are now based in key growing areas around the country with the focus of the monitoring work specialised in each area, for example vegetables in Pukehoke and grapes in Marlborough. The Crop Monitoring Co-ordinators work with customers to plan their requirements, then recruit Crop Monitoring Scouts from the region as needed. The Scouts often return year after year, so they build a relationship and knowledge of a customer’s operation which is highly valued by both parties.



“Our Scouts play a key role in assisting in the early detection of pest and disease, in fact many customers contract us to take care of this for them. The Scout provides the customer with a verbal briefing at the time of their visit which is followed up with a report of their findings. The report is distributed to key team members at Fruitfed, including the assigned Technical Field Representative. This builds up the wider Fruitfed team’s knowledge of what is happening around the country during key growing times which we can share with other customers on an anonymised basis.



“New Zealand is recognised internationally as an innovative producer of high-quality wine, vegetables and fruit. Our team prides itself on assisting customers in maintaining their high-quality production which in turn protects their brand and reputation,” said Jimmy.



One member of the crop monitoring team who has been working alongside customers for over ten years is Crop Monitoring Co-ordinator Rena Mehrtens. Rena, who joined Fruitfed in 2008, manages the Scouts in Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Nelson and Marlborough.



Rena said, “I have seen the focus on traceability and quality assurance increase significantly in the horticulture industry over the last decade. One aspect of this is a move toward early detection to reduce the requirement for application of spray on crops. Our crop monitoring services support our customers with this approach. Indevin have utilised our crop monitoring services for seven years at their Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay vineyards (and more recently in Marlborough) Each year in September I meet with Bryce MacKenzie of Indevin to plan for the season ahead and the monitoring programme runs from October through to April. They have a great team and over the years we have learned a lot about how they operate. It works well.”



Indevin’s Hawke’s Bay Viticulture Manager Bryce MacKenzie said, “We used to do the crop monitoring ourselves, but in 2011 we decided to hand the job over to Fruitfed. We run a pretty lean operation here and it is great to have that aspect of our business taken care of. Early detection of pest and disease in our grapes is critical to our production programme – the earlier we catch it the better. Rena and her team of Scouts take this worry away from us. They are a great team to work with and they know their stuff. Rena lets us know if there are issues elsewhere in the region so our team can look out for them between monitoring visits.”

Pictured: Indevin’s Hawke’s Bay Viticulture Manager Bryce MacKenzie inspects grapes with Fruitfed Crop Monitoring Manager Jimmy Bowden and Coordinator Rena Mehrtens in Hawke’s Bay in March 2018 prior to harvesting.