Chris Robinson

Field Days Reminder

A reminder to send in your expression of interest to attend Field Days.

Could members who plan to attend Field Days please reply to this email by Friday, 31st January.

We need a minimum of 10 members to attend, so once that threshold is reached, we can send out the normal registration form and proceed as usual. There is no penalty if you reply “yes” and then your plans change, we just need to gauge interest before committing to the weekend.

Itinerary

Day	Time	Place	Activity
Friday	7pm	Monteiths Brewary Bar	get together for drinks (organise your own dinner)
Saturday	10-12am	June and Russell Aitken	Hazelnut orchard (~2700 hazels)
	2-4pm	Lynn & Ross Smith	Hazelnut orchard (~2500 hazels)
	6pm	BBQ or restaurant	dinner
Sunday	9-11am	Electric Cherries https://www.forestlodge.nz/	Cherries and everything electric
	11.30-12.30am	Dunford Grove https://dunfordgrove.com/	Hazelnut orchard and olive grove (~400 hazels)

More details about our host orchards will be in the Registration Form.

22-23 February Field Days, Alexandra and Cromwell

Planning for Field Days is now complete and a summary of the Itinerary is shown below. As we are booking a tour at Electric Cherries (aka Forest Lodge) we need to know that we have the minimum numbers required to go ahead.

Could members who plan to attend Field Days please reply to this email within the next 5 days (30th January). Reply “yes” and the number of people attending.

Itinerary

Day	Time	Place	Activity
Friday	7pm	Monteiths Brewary Bar	get together for drinks (organise your own dinner)
Saturday	10-12am	June and Russell Aitken	Hazelnut orchard (~2700 hazels)
	2-4pm	Lynn & Ross Smith	Hazelnut orchard (~2500 hazels)
	6pm	BBQ or restaurant	dinner
Sunday	9-11am	Electric Cherries https://www.forestlodge.nz/	Cherries and everything electric
	11.30-12.30am	Dunford Grove https://dunfordgrove.com/	Hazelnut orchard and olive grove (~400 hazels)

More details about our host orchards will be in the Registration Form.

Snippets

This MPI report doesn’t mention hazelnuts, but it does focus on the big picture of New Zealand’s primary industry exports, their current worth and future outlook. A glossy read, and interesting to see the final destination of various goods.

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/resources-and-forms/economic-intelligence/situation-and-outlook-for-primary-industries

On the Taieri Plains, Janine and Roger Southby run Hazelnut Estate, a 4,700 tree orchard. In July they featured in this New Zealand Herald article about their orchard and the hazelnut business.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nutty-ambitions-otago-orchardists-find-success-in-hazelnuts/ND7N5YUBERGVDMAXUS7EPSJX4A

Growers in the Willamette Valley, Oregon had a Field Day in August, a much grander affair than we can offer! The experts and vendors alone numbered more than 200. Despite the might of the industry in Oregon, some of the topics covered are familar to New Zealand growers. For those that dream of high-tech farm equipment, check out the giant drone, which delivers 38L of spray to the canopy.

https://wcngg.com/2024/10/19/hazelnut-growers-gather-in-oregon-for-summer-tour/

And finally, an item from across the Tasman, where they have launched an Australian Hazelnut Program of Research (AUSHAZ). The hazelnut industry is supported by AgriFutures Australia Emerging Industries, which first produced a Blueprint for the industry, and now the launches the research arm of the Bluprint. New Zealand’s Lincoln Agritech is a part of the team.

https://agrifutures.com.au/news/hazelnut-industry-poised-for-growth-as-leading-researchers-crack-on-with-the-job

https://agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/AGF271-Hazenut-RDE-Plan-S3V1-DIGITAL.pdf

Some Fun Graphs

Here are a few fun graphs about hazelnuts and nuts in New Zealand.

Data were taken from the Figure NZ website (https://figure.nz/), which collects data from various sources (like the Census). This is one of those websites which is so much fun to poke around, with untold trivia, but also a serious side. As with all data, use it as a guide, not absolute truth.

Figure 1 No surprises here – Canterbury and Otago lead the way with the greatest area planted in hazelnuts.

Figure 2 We are dominated by the walnut-growers. And minisule by world standards – AI reckons there is 725,000 Ha of hazelnuts in Turkey, 94,500 in Italy and 2,500 in Australia.

Figure 3 You can check out what others are growing in your district. This is the data for Selwyn District.

XI International Congress on Hazelnut

4-8 August 2025, Beijing, China

Any members interested in attending the Congress? Maybe you are already travelling and could tack a trip to Beijing on to your itinerary. Submissions for talks and posters are due 8 February, 2025, and after that the organisers will release a program of which specialists will present their studies, plus any relevent events or visits.

https://www.ishs.org/symposium/812

Harvest Survey

Many thanks to all those members who completed the HGANZ 2024 Harvest Survey. We are collating the data ready for inclusion in funding applications. Grower comments about the industry, what areas they need more information about, and what they would like R&D to focus on have been circulated to the Committee. These will form the basis for future work, whether that is R&D or pulling together information for a Fact Sheet.

The winner of the $100 grocery voucher was drawn live at our Committee meeting. They are one of our anonymous responders and it won’t give anything away if we say they are in the mid-Canterbury area. Congratulations!