Presidents Report
I need to start this report with writing about how awesome our HB Young Fruit Grower competition was earlier this month. Every year I say this was our best event /competition and again I say it – this was our best ever – many thanks to Bex and her team at Planit events for putting together such an outstanding couple of days of competition ending with the awards, speech and dinner event. Thanks to all who made this such an incredible competition especially to the contestants, judges, sponsors and of course the team here at HBFA who continually give of their time and commitment to help bring such an event to our industry. Special thanks to Barry O’Neil for facilitating the leadership panel on Friday afternoon. At the awards dinner we were honoured to have several dignitary’s attend which included the following
- The Honourable Mark Mitchell
- Minister of Police
- Minister of Corrections
- & Minister of Emergency Management & Recovery.
- Mayor of Hastings, Sandra Hazlehurst
- Mayor of Napier, Kirsten Wise
- Tukituki MP Catherine Wedd
- Napier MP Katie Nimon
This year’s competition was extremely close – 7 out of the 8 contestants all won or came runner up of one of the awards on offer. But in the end, it was Grace Fulford from T&G who won this year’s HB Young Fruit Grower of the year with Leander Archer from Sunfruit coming in at second place. Well done to you both and to all the contestants who competed at this year’s event. Grace will represent HB and the National final which is to be held in early October here in HB, so we wish her all the best.
This year’s competition boasted 8 outstanding individuals from 6 different companies. To me the courage and determination shown by these young leaders reflect the resilience, strength and depth of our industry. I am confident that with young people like this coming up in our industry we will come out of the wake of last year’s cyclone with the ability to have an industry that will grow stronger, bigger, smarter and have a more prosperous future.
The night also saw HBFA present our prestigious Joe Bell Trophy award – this is for outstanding services to our industry. John Dine (JD) was a worthy recipient and it was a real pleasure to honour and award this to him. His Industry career started in 1979, and 45 years later he is still involved in the fruit growing industry – well done JD.
The team at HBFA spent a couple of days in Taupo recently to look at what we have accomplished over the last year but also what our priorities need to be going forward for the short term and longer vision of the association. We have identified several areas of focus which we will begin to work towards, but we will also be sending out a survey in the next few months to gauge feedback from our members to see where and what they believe our key priorities should include.
Enjoy the quieter months we are in – take a break, rest up and enjoy yourselves, spend time with your family – There is more to life than the orchard and packshed.
Please Remember to reach out to Callum, myself or any of the executive team. We are here to assist or help you in any way.
Kia kaha
Brydon Nisbet