June 14, 2023
Diversification pays off for Wi Pere
The manager of this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy winner for the top Māori horticultural enterprise credits the win to years of consistent improvement, hard work and a focus on good management and innovation.
Wi Pere Trust horticultural operations manager Wayne Hall says the Gisborne-based group has stuck with what’s been successful in the past – like gold kiwifruit, citrus and apples, but also introduced promising new crops like blue-berries and persimmons.
The diversification means it can now offer staff year round work.
“It really had a big re-set of its strategy back in 2010, when I started with the group – and we’re now tracking a lot more profitably, the crops that we grow are a lot more profitable, and I guess the employment opportunities for whanau and other local people is now generating a lot of momentum, which is fantastic for everybody,” he says..
Mr Hall says Wi Pere Trust was thrilled to win the tohu after taking out the sheep and beef trophy last year.