Newly-appointed Fruitfed Supplies Area Sales Manager Jeremy Darby heads up a new team in the region with new faces representing PGG Wrightson in both the horticulture and Rural Supplies  teams.

Having started with the company in 2015 as a Technical Field Representative in Gisborne, Jeremy drew on his personal background growing up in the rural sector in Hawke’s Bay. “I have a practical on-farm background with pipfruit, squash and vegetables, before spending some time overseas working in cereals in the UK and Australia. Returning to Hawke’s Bay ten years ago I went into sheep and beef operational roles, which included some irrigation scheme experience. This all holds me in good stead to lead a Fruitfed Supplies store and sales team.”

Jeremy says his move to Gisborne three years ago has delivered the changes he and his family were looking for. “My wife, three children and I are really enjoying it here. It’s a really self-sufficient region; a great outdoor lifestyle with fishing, hunting, beaches. “The agricultural community is not a huge one, so it’s good to show you’re going to stick around. Mostly it’s well-established operations doing a good job. There’s growing pressure on land prices in the horticulture sector with people wanting to grow kiwifruit. Apples are on the increase too. We’ve seen grapes being pulled out and new, more commercially viable varieties going in, and citrus is still very strong. We have a strong connection with the vegetable sector and the region’s largest producers.”

Jeremy says the region is facing issues with water consent and water availability as authorities seek to recharge underground aquafers. “Being more of a subtropical climate, you always have pest and disease challenges which necessitates constant crop monitoring – we have a very capable Crop Monitoring team here led by Angela Dolman.” Having officially taken on the Area Sales Manager’s role in early June,  Jeremy also is still out on the road looking after his farming clients. “We do have a full complement of representatives for Horticulture and Rural Supplies, but several joined us recently, mostly with practical growing experience, so I’m still going through that handover period for the spring period and making sure our customers are happy  with the changes.”

Jeremy sees that coming from growing/ farming side, it helps him understand practically what’s going on for customers. “They don’t want to hear how you used to do it! But they do like that you have a good level of understanding of their operation. I thought my technical knowledge wasn’t bad until Igot here and saw PGG Wrightson’s technical offerings – there’s considerable resources and knowledge which is fantastic to be able to draw on to support our customers. We’re well supported by our Fruitfed Supplies Technical team with Sean Gresham, Kevin Manning andDaniel Sutton contributing knowledge and running well-attended grower meetings. It’s a huge positive for the company.”