Blueberry Country

Blueberry Country is New Zealand’s largest blueberry growing business, in three locations: Ohaupo, just south of Hamilton; Ngatea on the Hauraki Plains and at Otautau in Southland. It is owned and run by the Furniss family and totals 240ha of bushes in 40 different varieties, producing fruit that ranges from berries that are small, dark blue and super sweet to strains that are larger and coloured light blue. The New Zealand industry organisation has 60 grower members and reports about 400ha of bushes nationwide.

Over 40 years, from the pioneering development of blueberry growing at Rukuhia and then Ohaupo, company owners Greg and Alison Furniss’ original sorting and packing equipment has now grown into a fruit handling machinery sister company called BBC Technologies.

The small blue-black fruit belongs to the Ericaceae family (whose other members include the cranberry and bilberry). Although many varieties thrive in New Zealand conditions, the fruit is native to North America where the largest volumes are grown. Blueberries are also grown in large quantities in South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South Africa and China.

In New Zealand blueberries are mostly grown on peat soils and all Blueberry Country plants are field-grown without cover, exposing them to frost risk. In Southland this season, all Blueberry Country bushes were hit by frost and there will be no harvest.

Greg and Alison Furniss are among the pioneers of the New Zealand blueberry industry, growing first at Rukuhia, then further south of Hamilton at Ohaupo, then expanding to Ngatea on the Hauraki Plains, then to Otautau in Southland. They have also pioneered the development in New Zealand of colour sorting, defect rejection, grading and clamshell packaging for fresh berries. They have also developed machinery for their packhouse, which has now grown into a large, export-oriented, high-technology fruit handling equipment company.

Family members Geoff Furniss (son) is CEO of BBC Technologies and Warrick Macdonald (son-in-law) is CEO of Blueberry Country. Greg and Alison travel the world visiting blueberry-growing countries, orchards and looking at BBC-equipped packhouses.

Harvesting runs from late November to April, depending on frosts. Different varieties are grown to spread the harvest times and to replace older bushes with newer varieties (blueberries are perennial fruit-bearing bushes). The first objective is sweetness at harvest, followed by flavour, and different sizes for sales requirements, either fresh, frozen, export and processing. Waikato is not the world’s best growing region, when compared with parts of the US, Chile or China but Blueberry Country grows between 500 and 700 tonnes a year depending on weather. New genetics are pushing high-quality blueberries into new regions like Australia, Peru, Morocco.

Berries are hand-picked for fresh sales and machine-picked for frozen. Blueberry Country has four machine harvesters at Ohaupo and Ngatea. Machine harvesting began in the 1980’s and tracked vehicles are used on the peat.

All packhouse work is done at Ohaupo where all machinery is BBC Technologies. Peak production is 4000 fresh trays a day, which would not be possible without automation. “We used to think 1000 trays was enormous, so we couldn’t have grown to today’s size without BBC Technologies,” Alison said.

Blueberry Country opens at two Waikato locations for pick-your-own fruit during December and January. Members of the public can pick their own for $10/kg. As well as being a great day out and a chance to savour freshly picked blueberries, Alison says visiting Blueberry Country’s orchards is often an eye opener. People from the city don’t often get to see first-hand where their fruit and vegetables come from. When families come and pick their own fruit, they leave understanding more about how fruit grows and is harvested, about local family farms and that they can save money by buying direct from growers. “It’s also a great day out in the countryside and we encourage people to eat while they pick and enjoy the differences between varieties.”

Blueberry Country also sells frozen blueberries on site. For those who get really keen on the fruit, Blueberry Country also sells bushes that visitors can take home to plant in their garden. These come from an on-site nursery where commercial varieties of blueberry plants are propagated and grown.