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News
Back to the news list Picking platforms help take pressure off apple har
23 March 2021 - Stuff.co.nz

The severely constrained Hawke’s Bay apple harvest is getting a boost with the arrival of new picking platforms from Italy, which could double the volume of apples a worker could pick in a day.

A massive worker shortage, due to border restrictions that prevent labour from the Pacific Islands from entering the country, will force many growers to leave fruit to rot on the tree this year.

But some growers are turning to technology to get the job done.

Eight new $130,000 platforms hit the fields this month as T&G global races to harvest an early ripening crop, following a warm and sunny growing season.

Head of operations Craig Betty said it was vital that the apples were picked within a two-week window of maturity, as otherwise the quality and the length of time they could be stored would be affected.

The platforms could carry four workers at a time and allowed less experienced and less fit pickers to harvest about six bins a day compared to two or three, he said.

“Picking apples is labour-intensive work, and at times it’s physically demanding, requiring strength and endurance. These platforms enable fast, efficient and safe picking of apples, doubling the volume of apples which can be picked each day,”

T&G began using automated picking platforms three years ago and this new order brought its total to 11 in Hawke’s Bay, he said.

They moved down the row lifting workers approximately 2.5 metres high to do tree training, thinning, pruning and picking. Each platform was fitted with a bin carrying module, enabling it to load and unload full bins of apples within the row of trees.

T&G intended to raise more capital to purchase more platforms for next season, Betty said.

“They are certainly cost effective and as long as you maintain them, they’ll last. They are housed into implement sheds on orchards.”

Rockit Global, another Hawke’s Bay apple grower also uses platforms, with five in operation for the harvest.

General manager Chris Hurrey said the company had been using platforms for some time and had brought in eight this season, which were providing productivity gains.

The platforms were picking about 10 per cent of the crop and had enabled Rockit to utilise workers who wouldn’t have been successful using ladders.

“They are very much filling a critical worker gap. Longer term our plan is to operate a much larger fleet. In a perfect world the platform will replace the ladder – this investment will be in the millions.”

Orchards needed to be planted in a way that suited the platforms and other future technology, he said.



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