Ashburton Courier: December 07, 2023

www.ashburtoncourier.co.nz
RURAL
Ashburton Courier, December 7, 2023
43
Turley family taking abite of the apple
BY TIM CRONSHAW
The Turley family are breaking
new ground in an apple orchard
joint venture with Rockit
Global at Rangitata.
Turley Farms co­owners
Murray and Margaret Turley
have turned dryland crop and
stock properties into highvalue
vegetable and arable
operations in the past and built
up agribusiness shareholdings
in the region.
Now they’re investing in
apple­growing and, after
running atrial with various
varieties, have settled on the
bite­sized fruit managed and
marketed by Rockit.
The Turley Rockit
partnership has planted a
20­hectare orchard with plans
to bring in other investors to
grow their Rangitata site to
100ha.
‘‘We are always looking for
the next land use change and
pipfruit seemed to have afit for
South Canterbury,’’ Mr Turley
said.
‘‘We did the research,
planted the trial orchard and
our agronomist did agreat job
of taking that through to show
what can happen. We’ve
studied the growing degree
days and climate as far as
inversion layers and that sort of
thing so with agood supply of
water we seem to think it’s
worth having agoatanew
challenge.’’
He said apple trees were
relatively light on water under
trickle irrigation, without the
Murray Turley
peaks of some grass and cereal
crops, and showed potential in
extracting value from water.
The Turleys sent their
agronomist Dominic Cosgrove
to Hawke’s Bay to see if apples
were right for them. Atrial
orchard planted in eight
varieties in 2021 was followed
by another six varieties last
year.
‘‘It’s given us agood insight into
what can be done and probably
some finer points to the growing
structure that we probably
learned to take forward to the
large [Turley Rockit] orchard.’’
Turley said they liked to do
their homework before investing
in large ventures, investigating
soil types for potato growing
before moving to Mid
Canterbury’s Chertsey area in
1993.
He said apple growing had
advanced since then with
changes in growing structures to
make it arepeatable process for
staff, higher planting densities
BIRD’S EYE VIEW: Turley Rockit orchard in South Canterbury’s
Rangitata.
PHOTO: ROCKIT GLOBAL
and lending itself to perhaps
robotics in the future.
The 2D growing system used by
Rockit appealed as it produced
more fruit from asmaller area.
Projected returns for Rockit
apple growing were attractive.
‘‘We are awhile off getting full
maturity so alot could happen
with the price of fruit and we
would be back on yield compared
with Hawke’s Bay so there’s afew
unknowns there, but we think the
profitability stacks up and hence
why we are doing it.’’
Developing the Turley Rockit
orchard, completed in
September, was abig job, he said.
Favouring the investment was
the orchard’s scale on alarge
greenfield site and efficiencies
from putting in long rows of
densely planted trees.
Eventually, local staff and likely
Recognised Seasonal Employer
(RSE) workers will be recruited
for the orchard as they have for
an onion packhouse.
Turley said the partnership
with Rockit was agood fit.
‘‘Their marketing philosophy
and snack­type convenience food
[won us over] as it’s atrend at the
moment pretty much to the fore.
And Ithink it’s just the
uniqueness of it and alot of it
comes down to marketing and
trying to capture as much return
as you can and we think Rockit
can achieve that for us.’’
The partnership follows on
from the family collaborating
with other investors in
agribusiness.
A20% shareholding was
bought in 2012 in Dairy Holdings,
which runs 63 dairy farms and 20
support blocks.
Another venture is a40%
shareholding in Farmers Mill,
which produces flour for Griffins
NZ, along with other bakery
customers, and allows local
growers to mill their own wheat.
The couple are among founding
shareholders of the Onion
processing plant, Southern
Packers and have a25% stake in
the business.
The Turleys also run a1900ha
operation based at Temuka,
producing cereals, potatoes,
onions, hybrid vegetable seeds of
carrots, canola, radish and red
beet and ryegrass and white
clover for seed.
Turley said they were always
up for anew challenge and could
yet take on further opportunities
suiting their climate and soils.
He said they had continued
building business interests as
they liked working and
collaborating with other farmers
and business people.
He said he was agrower at
heart who enjoyed the challenges
of business and working with
like­minded people.
Guidance sought
BY DAVID HILL
Local democracy reporter
Feedback is being sought from
Māori leaders on how to ensure a
mana whenua voice,
Environment Canterbury (Ecan)
chair Peter Scott says.
Scott says the council will seek
guidance from the region’s 10
Papatipu Rūnanga chairs of how
to proceed should the
Government go ahead with its
proposal to scrap NgāiTahu
representation.
He said there had been alot of
reaction to the Government’s
announcement it will repeal the
Canterbury Regional Council
(NgāiTahu Representation) Act,
which allows Te Rūnanga oNgāi
Tahu to appoint two councillors
to represent the Papatipu
Rūnanga.
The NgāiTahu representation
legislation was initiated by the
council and was presented to
Parliament twice, before finally
passing into law last year in time
for the local government
elections.
NgāiTahu elected
Tutehounuku Korako and Iaean
Cranwell as its councillors
during last year’s local
government elections.
Scott said having NgāiTahu
councillors saved ratepayers
money and sped up the process.
The NgāiTahu Settlement Act
(1998) required the council to
consult with all 10 Papatipu
Rūnanga. Ecan has had Ngāi
Tahu representation around the
council table for more than a
decade.
NgāiTahu representatives
served as Governmentappointed
commissioners after
the elected councillors were
sacked by the previous Nationalled
Government from 2011 to
2016.
The Government also
appointed NgāiTahu
councillors in 2016, while Tumu
Taiao (cultural) advisors served
at the council table from 2020 to
2022. The Tumu Taiao advisors
had aseat at the council table,
but had no voting rights.
‘‘We saw the benefit and
thought we should do something
about it,’’ Scott said.
‘‘The statutory requirement is
to consult with mana whenua
and we felt the most judicious
way to do it was to have these
councillors in the room to
navigate the discussion from a
cultural perspective. The
alternative is going out and
consulting with each of the
Papatipu Rūnanga and that
takes time and money. We can do
it in the room and make a
decision.’’
Just last week Environment
Canterbury voted against
establishing a Māori ward for the
2025 and 2028 local government
elections, following advice from
Te Rūnanga oNgāiTahu and
seven of the 10 Papatipu
Rūnanga.
The Papatipu Rūnanga chairs
had yet to meet to discuss the
matter.
Public interest journalism
funded by NZ On Air
Let our agronomists
do the groundwork.
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