Christmas Message from the Chair

As the year draws to a close, I just wanted to reach out and wish you a Merry Xmas and happy holiday season.  There are a few highlights for the year that I would like to mention.  

• Firstly the field days held in Otago at the start of the year.  Whilst it was a relatively small turn out, it was great to visit some of our southern most members and see their orchards.  As always there are learnings to be taken from these field days, and it’s a great way to share information and build relationships.  
• Secondly I would like to thank our Executive Officer, Chris for all her work during the year.  It’s been a busy year for Chris training to be a nurse, juggling family responsibilities and getting in as much HGANZ work as possible.
• We used some of the HGANZ funds to send Les McCracken to the Australian hazelnut conference in Tasmania.  This was very valuable and Les has produced a report which is included in this newsletter.  We face similar challenges to the Australians and we really dont compete with them, so I see collaboration with them as a positive thing, as they do with us.
• A couple of weeks ago, most of the committee got together for a face to face strategic planning session.  The first in a couple of years.  We spent about 6 hours working through the issues that face Hazelnut growers.  Feedback from processors has been that sales have been a little slower in the last couple of years due to the economy and hazelnuts positioning as a luxury item rather than an essential item.  However they are confident of the year ahead, and I hope we will have the volumes of nuts to support them.  One of the key themes to emerge from our planning session was the need to promote NZ grown hazelnuts, and we are investigating producing a NZ Grown certification mark/logo similar to “NZ grown grains” to promote our superior product compared to imported nuts.  There will be more detail on this and our themes from the planning session at the next field days in Nelson and in coming newsletters.
• On the home front I have done some mechanical pruning of around 1000 trees which will give some interesting information for the future of the impact of more light into the canopy on nut yield.
• Lastly I would like to thank the committee for their contribution throughout the year and you all for continuing to support your association.  We are small and growing hazelnuts doesn’t have the profitability of some of the big horticultural products like kiwifruit or apples.  But it doesn’t have the risks and the same substantial capital requirements either.  It’s a good product, low in nitrogen use and carbon friendly. We will continue to help promote hazelnuts and share best practise with you in the coming year.

I hope you all get a break and dont have too much orchard work to do over the holidays.