ANGELA and Mike Roy have owned Piopio Berry Orchard for 31 years
IT’S not your imagination… berries from the Piopio Berry Orchard are exceptionally tasty.
And there’s a reason for that. Most berry farms have to meet supermarket demand, so produce must be robust enough to “bounce around in trucks;” fruit is often picked slightly immature.
The results still look and taste good, but there’s a different set of market demands in play.
By contrast, Angela and Mike Roy sell their berries fresh from their popular SH3 shopfront. The produce travels 150m to the counter, not hundreds of kilometres to Auckland or Christchurch.
So there is only one focus: growing quality berries. That means flavour, colour and size: “We need to get it all right,” Angela said.
What is their secret? There isn’t one.
“We don’t have any secrets: we have the same varieties as other growers throughout the country.
“We do things in a more traditional way, and we don’t cut any corners. That’s what our customers expect, and that’s what we enjoy growing,” Mike said.
They know their market first hand.
“We see the customers face-to-face. Often producers don’t – they never see who consumes their product. But we see everyone,” Mike said.
“Over 95% plus is sold at the gate; everything we grow is destined for the shop. That’s one of our main philosophies.”
Only if there is “a bit of surplus” will they sell through the supermarkets.
That said, “We have found that producing enough is always the issue. We’re constantly tweaking that, every year,” Angela said.
From Labour Day through to autumn, lines of cars and campervans bring crowds of travellers who indulge in raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and more.
There’s asparagus too, plus T-shirts and collectable pens.
The accents tell you that these visitors come from all over the world, arriving alongside committed locals.
Visitors tuck into real fruit ice-cream or punnets of fresh berries, often bringing home the frozen kind as well.
Those are of the same standard as the rest (barring the odd cosmetic blemish).
A given day’s unsold berries go straight in the freezer, making room for the next day’s.
The berries sell in a range of quantities – from 10kg boxes to 1kg bags: one kind or mixed. There’s also take-home ice cream, dairy or coconut, and frozen yoghurt.
The direct-to-customer model is just one factor making this 31-year-old farming operation stand out. And much of their story won’t be common knowledge, even to Piopio locals.
The couple bought the land and shop in 1993 and opened the ice cream area in 2007.
“We had children going off to varsity at that time, and we wanted them to have a job they could come home to, rather than have to go elsewhere.” Angela said.
All up, there are 9-10 ha in production. There are 6ha of blueberries, 2ha of strawberries, and 1ha each of raspberries and blackberries.
Perhaps the costliest side of the business is the 12 blueberry varieties. Partly because they need the most space, but also, it is necessary to wait five to six years before they start producing.
“The land is out of commission for that time – even then, they come into production slowly.” Angela said.
Luckily the oldest plants – from the early 1980s – were already in the ground when the Roys took over. They’re going strong in 2024 – there is no need to take them out because they still produce well.
In the last eight years, the Roys have started planting newer varieties of blueberry – still a few years off. These are expected to fruit either earlier or later in the season, into March and April. It’s part of the longer growing season the couple aim for.
Birds aren’t fussed about raspberries, strawberries or blackberries: it’s blueberries that drive them crazy.
So these are protected by hectares of netting around the edges, the rolls are hand-sewn by Angela.
A few birds do get in through the door, but this doesn’t matter especially. However, overall it makes a big difference.
One year, the netting was damaged in a relatively small area, and they lost fifty per cent of that year’s blueberry crop. So the not-insubstantial effort is worthwhile.
The Piopio location brings its own gifts. As well as the cool climate, the orchard is the only berry farm for 100km, meaning pests and diseases are less of a problem than in other areas.
New Zealand’s food safety laws require the business to have a plan for managing waste – and theirs is animals.
Berries that lack in the looks department go straight to the family’s collection of pink-nosed sheep and cattle, who love tucking into buckets of reject fruit.
“The sheep come running from anywhere,” Mike said.
They lurk around the fence ahead of their afternoon feeding time. All up, the family graze six steers and 60 sheep. These are self-shearing Wiltshires, keeping the costs down.
Nothing grazes among the berries for obvious reasons: Angela mows it all with a ride-on. Instead, the main purpose of the stock is keeping the pasture down, “very valuable” to the business.
Overall, the operation is a mix of low-fi and super modern. That means there’s a computer controlling the moisture and other technical aspects of the orchard’s tunnel house (used to grow shoulder season strawberries), but much is done by hand, by the orchard’s workers, numbering up to 80 at peak times.
“Our business looks simple, we don’t have all the high-tech things. But the reason being, we can pack all day because we’re not trying to meet a truck.
We shut at six, so we can pack until 5 at night,” Angela said. “Ours is a low-tech, and proudly low-tech business. We don’t have a $50,000 label maker or whatever they cost, we just put them on. “Sometimes they’re a bit squiffy because the grandchildren have done it.” “We’re uncomplicated and we’ve kept it that way.” That said, they’re open to new ideas. “We feel the most important innovation we’ve made in the last few years is growing our strawberries in tunnel houses. “These extend our season to a full six months. “They also mean full protection from the weather, which is good for the fruit. “It’s also important for the comfort of the pickers who are working in there, by keeping them out of the weather. “We have near-eliminated fungus disease problems because there is a greatly reduced amount of moisture, and in turn this has hugely cut down the need for pesticides. “ This season, the couple also brought in IPM (integrated pest management). “This is introducing predator insects to control pests, a very significant development of our business,” Mike said. At the back of the shop, the fruit is packed by hand. At the season’s peak, there will be eight students in the front of house, as well as loyal packing room stalwarts Lin and Lizzie. The picking side of the business benefits from a longstanding workforce. Many pickers have been with the Roys for the full three decades. They employ mostly Piopio locals and, at the peak of the season, university students back home for the holidays. “Getting staff is not an issue for us,” Mike added. “We have the best work team in the industry. “Quite a number have been with us the entire 30 years. They’ve just come back year after year. “Most have been with us five years, if not fifteen.” The Roys emphasise that occupational health and safety is taken seriously. Strawberry pickers use “Little bikes and an umbrella,” helping them look after their backs, while blueberry pickers can stand upright with buckets around their waist. “It’s a long day. They do a long day, but it’s not back breaking. That keeps things stress-free,” Angela said. “A lot of growers did that in the past, but got rid of them because they thought it slowed them down. “We don’t believe that. The workers put their ipods on and they just go up and down the rows. It’s wonderful.” Much of the workforce is sourced close to home – very much so. “We’re very family minded: we’ve got six members directly involved in one capacity or another,” Angela said. “That’s a big part of our philosophy.” On school afternoons, their four grandsons love to get off the bus and ride bikes from the far side of the orchard to the shop, whooping through the vines as they go. Their mother, the couple’s older daughter Jessie, who also dairy farms, is a familiar face serving customers. “She is there day in, day out through the season,” Angela said. Younger daughter, Maggie, who is experienced in accounting, administers payroll from London. Sons Tom (together with his partner Siobhan) and Jack also do their bit – the latter is the marketing man. And the couple’s son-in-laws help out too. “We’re just plain lucky.” What can customers expect from this business in the future? As well as the latest varieties of blueberry, they will enjoy apples from trees that have only recently been planted. What won’t change is the part of the market they’re aiming for – the top end. “Along the topic of price points – we definitely are in that top end of the market. We realise that. “We’ve gone for quality, and we definitely spend more to achieve that,” Mike said.
