Conference Programme

Registration opens  |  Afternoon Tea

4:00pm       

AGM

5:30-7.30pm

Thursday 25 August

9.30am  









10am

Earlier this year, Zespri completed a global technology scan to understand the technology landscape for horticulture across three horizons – now, next, and beyond. This forms a critical input to the annual review of their orchard technology portfolio to ensure the technologies they are investing in align with international trends, and that they are not re-inventing the wheel by developing solutions from scratch when there are existing solutions they can leverage. While Zespri has tuned the technology scan outputs for the kiwifruit industry, the technology vendors operate in the horticulture space so the findings will be widely relevant.

11am






11.15am









11.30am

Pathways for digital adoption in primary industries
Brendan O'Connell, CEO, Agritech NZ
AgriTech NZ have partnered with MPI, Zespri, Dairy NZ, The Foundation for Arable Research, and The Fertiliser Association of New Zealand to complete a Pan-Sector Baseline of Digital Adoption in the Primary Industry. In this presentation, Brendan will give an overview of the research and discuss the different drivers and barriers to adoption.

Me aro ki te Reo o te Kaimahi – Kia Kōkihi Hangarau Hou: Listening to the Voices of the Workers when Developing New Orchard Technologies
Dr Marama Muru-Lanning, and Dr Robert Pouwhare, James Henare Research Centre
In 2021, the James Henare Research Centre team interviewed 16 orchard workers and managers from Kono Horticulture in Motueka. Kono’s values are rooted in tikanga and mātauranga Māori, and demonstrate a major point of difference from other horticultural companies in the Tauihu region. The aim of this study is to gain employee-based insights into the use, future adoption, and concerns of Robotic and AI technology in the horticulture and viticulture industries. This presentation will explore the necessity of engaging with workers when inventing and developing new orchard technologies.

Panel discussion:
Often we view the globe through a competitive lens, however the future success of our industry will rely on greater partnerships with the world.  How can we collaborate globally to go further and faster together?

Midday 







 12.25pm





 

How do we enable our global potential and realise the opportunities ahead?

Realising the Global Opportunity
Warren Young, Collaborative Marketing Manager, ZESPRI International
Zespri’s journey to establish and support a 12-month supply strategy via Northern Hemisphere grower partners.  

Insights into the next five years of global shipping
Charles Finny, Partner, Saunders Unsworth, and Independent Chair, Port Company CEO Group
We are just beginning to emerge from close to three years of huge disruption in the global supply chain caused by COVID, the initial response to the pandemic, and the unusual purchasing patterns that lockdowns in wealthy countries stimulated.
Charles will do his best to predict what things might look like from here on for the next five years, based on work he does for ports, airports and major cargo owners.

2pm






2.25pm

Joe Nelson, Consul-General and Trade Commissioner, NZTE, Viet Nam 
New Zealand fruit exports to Viet Nam have grown significantly in the past five years and Viet Nam is now a strategic market for many of our fruit exporters. NZTE will provide their latest insights on what is driving consumer demand, will share the results of this year’s Made with Care campaign, and provide their opinion on the outlook for the market.

Panel discussion:

3pm 













3.20pm


           

3.50pm     

Smart & Sustainable invests in the long-term future of the New Zealand Apple industry. This Government-Industry partnership is a fundamentally important step to meet our future global consumer expectations. Some of the key objectives of this seven-year project are to develop, or to find a pathway to develop, new technologies for pest and disease detection, develop alternative pest and disease control options, and formulate an industry plan for achieving our spray-free goal by 2050.   The long-term outcomes will be residue-free, sustainably produced apples with enhanced environmental outcomes, thereby maximising global demand and the economic returns to both the grower and the New Zealand economy. 

The regulatory landscape - what might it mean for growers?
Chris Baldock, Director, PwC Legal
Chris will bring an employment relations lens to a number of upcoming changes in the regulatory space - including fair pay agreements, the proposed income and insurance scheme, and modern slavery - and consider what these could mean for growers in the horticultural sector. 

Variety innovation in South Tyrol, Italy
Markus Bradlwarter, Executive Director, Variety Innovation Consortium South Tyrol
The Variety Innovation Consortium South Tyrol is on the lookout for the best apple varieties worldwide for the South Tyrolean fruit growers. The Plant and Food Research / Prevar programme is undoubtedly one of the top players among breeders. In addition to an extraordinarily high eating quality - which is determined not only by the taste, but also by a crunchy, juicy texture - new modern apple varieties have to deliver regular yields with a high pack-out, and above all, they have to be resistant to diseases and pests. This is the only way to continue to meet the high demands of our consumers in the future.

Friday 26 August

7.45am     

Welcome back to Day Two
Hon Damien O’Connor, Minister of Agriculture
 

8.50am 











9.10am
 

Safeguarding the future of our industry.

'Catch the Fire'. What's the end goal?
Jacob Coombridge, Orchard Block Manager, Webbs Fruit
With stories of his recent trip to the Philippines, Jacob Coombridge from Central Otago shares his thoughts on what it takes to get the next generation into our industry. With labour shortages and an entitiled generation at our fingertips, how do we best acquire staff, and then retain them? Jacob shares how important it is that young people 'Catch the Fire', and are given the opportunity to pursue the end goal.


Our RSE story
Emma Sherwood, Manager RSE / Seasonal Labour, NZAPI
NZ Apples and Pears Manager of RSE and Seasonal Labour, Emma Sherwood, will present an update on the future of RSE, as well as summarising information from the recent RSE Conference that celebrated 15 years of the RSE scheme.
 

• Demand for “sustainable food” and its many different faces.
• Shaping our response – how are the pressures playing out for farmers?
• The rise and role of finance for driving outcomes and financing transitions      

Bridget Coates, Chair, Toitū Tahua; Centre for Sustainable Finance and Fonterra Sustainability Panel
Sustainability is a three-legged stool consisting of economic viability, environmental soundness, and social acceptability, meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. New Zealand farmers and growers face clear signals from their customers, consumers, and regulators, regarding the need to adapt to these new requirements.  We will discuss this developing context and the ways the NZ Apple Industry is responding to the new realities of the global markets.

Beyond sustainability: 'less bad' is no longer good enough
Barbara Nebel, CEO, thinkstep-anz
Climate Change, and other aspects of sustainability are now anchored in legislation. However, regulatory compliance only scratches the surface of what sustainability has to offer. What are the real opportunities for NZ apples and pears? What are the relevant aspects of sustainability?
There is tangible business value in incorporating and implementing sustainability in core strategy that goes beyond just energy savings and better packaging.

Panel discussion
Gareth Edgecombe, CEO, T&G Global joins Jacqui, Bridget, and Barbara to discuss:
Why is sustainability an opportunity for our industry? And what actions can our members take to seize these opportunities?
 

How Our World Changed
2020 was shaping up to be the biggest and most successful year in the 30-year history of New Zealand-based technology company Animation Research Ltd. On Friday 13th March 2020 (a Black Friday if ever there was one) that all changed.  Sir Ian Taylor shares a two-year journey where his team never used the word challenge in the same sentence as the word Covid. “Covid was here, so we only looked at the opportunities it presented.”

As it turned out, the opportunities were game changing.