One of the sunniest places in New Zealand, Nelson has been a centre for apple growing since 1913. It has a unique maritime microclimate, surrounded by hills and sheltered from adverse weather by mountains on three sides, and the sea on the fourth, which creates a warming influence in winter and a cooling one in summer. Days are long with the average number of sun-hours a year 2400+, the average summer temperature 24ºC and the average rainfall 980mm. The high sunlight hours and cool nights are perfect for healthy cell growth and division, good respiration and for optimising the conversion of sunlight to produce natural sugars and crisp, juicy, sweet fruit, full of flavour.

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Heartland leads the New Zealand industry in pioneering new rootstocks and varieties. We were the first group to plant Manchurian crab apples as pollinators and to commercially use dwarf rootstocks. One of our group developed the Red Braeburn – Eve™, which is now a well accepted variety in many markets around the world and our group is at the forefront of developing Tentation and the Pacific series in New Zealand. As a company we believe that an innovative attitude helps provide solutions for customers, and gives both ourselves and our customers the edge over competitors. We are heavily involved with new variety development in New Zealand and are currently trialing a number of new varieties in conjunction with New Zealand Plant & Food Research (formerly HortResearch).

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Because we set out to grow apples thinking solely of the eating quality and the end consumer, (as opposed to employing a more common production mentality, focussed on volume and logistic drivers) our orchards tend to be designed differently. Our focus is on distributing light to all parts of the tree as efficiently as possible. The right rootstock, nutrition, minerals and trace elements are calculated and trees are spaced and shaped according to maximum light interception to produce apples of better flavour and texture (trees too closely planted or shaded, will produce soft, flavourless apples). We employ expert consultants and hold regular group discussions among the Heartland growers, in order to compare our orchard plans and performances and to exchange our observations and learnings.

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90% of eating quality is determined at the orchard. At harvest time we use scientific data, experience and consultant advice to determine the absolute perfect picking time – we’re always looking for that ‘crunch’! Each individual apple is picked on its merit on any given day rather than purely stripping a tree of all its fruit. Multi picking carries an enormous cost to us, but the end result is that the fruit will be consistent in its maturity at market.
Many of our pickers are locals who return year after year and understand the quality process. They understand why we are fanatical about cooling the fruit quickly and that rapid removal of field heat equals extended shelf life for our customers in the market.

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Our fruit is categorised on the orchard 6 months before harvest and tracked all the way to market. Customers supply their specifications and we identify fruit suitable for them at the orchard where it is tagged and grown, harvested, and placed into inventory with that customer in mind. Through our ownership of the packing houses, we are able to control the packing, match tagged fruit to the customer specification and pack accordingly. From our packhouses, fruit is shipped in containers to customers direct.
Customer feedback determines what is done on orchards from one year to the next and customers can be sure the same group of orchards that supplied them one year will do it again the next.

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The needs of the fruit drive the logistics chain – not the reverse. The aim is to deliver a piece of fruit as good as the day it was harvested. Our fruit is shipped direct to market from our coolstores. Our quality manager Kelvin Le Comte uses market information and customer quality reports to provide direct feedback to our Heartland growers, so that they can alter orchard practices accordingly. In New Zealand, 25% of the Heartland crop is for local consumption. This allows our growers to personally buy and assess the quality of Heartland apples under identical conditions to those in which our customers do year round.

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The ideal customer for Heartland Fruit is one that shares the same values as us. We enjoy working with people who regard relationship as important and recognise and appreciate a job well done. We want to establish longterm relationships with buyers and retailers who would class quality as their driver and competitive advantage. Heartland Fruit’s goal is not to be the biggest, but to develop a reputation for quality second to none.

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