Aaron an orchard owner at just 25

In an industry where 58 is the average age of orchard owners, 25-year-old Aaron Hokopaura is an exception.

In March he took the bold step of buying a Katikati orchard, demonstrating that it is possible for young people to do more than work in the industry.

Aaron, a grower services representative for Aongatete, has surprised even himself in achieving orchard ownership well before his 30th birthday.

“I looked at the figures around orchard prices and thought maybe for me that was 10 years away. But thanks to the encouragement of my bosses, and with KiwiSaver, I managed to buy this orchard.”

The property in Katikati is 2.2 hectares, which includes 1.4 canopy hectares in Hayward green kiwifruit and the balance made up of a small grazing paddock, and a house.

“It’s a big step and financial commitment and I’ll have to work hard to make it work.”

Katikati is probably the place for young growers to get into the industry, says Aaron. “There are quite a lot of smaller orchards in this area, which are ideal for the first-time buyer.”

Income too

Aaron says committing to an orchard is a huge step but unlike a house in town, it comes with an income to help pay its way.

Although he’s now a proud orchard owner and enjoying the challenges the industry offers both as an owner and through his full-time job, kiwifruit wasn’t top of Aaron’s career options when he studied horticulture at Massey University.

In fact, he strategically avoided selecting the industry for assignment topics. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in kiwifruit; just that everyone else seemed to be writing about the industry.

“I figured the lecturers could get a bit tired of reading about it; but if I came up with something different, it might grab their attention.

“However, when I started looking for jobs most of the opportunities were in kiwifruit, even though it was struggling with the impacts of Psa-V.”

Promising future

Aaron was offered a job with Aongatete, which has an active policy of employing graduates. Four years on he’s one of the company’s grower services representative, a job he enjoys.

Even with the issues caused by the vine disease Psa, Aaron could see a promising future in the industry and began planning how he could become an orchard owner. Now his next challenge is to balance orchard ownership with his job.

“I will manage the orchard and do some of the work but contract Aongatete to do most of it.”

The mature orchard is in generally good shape although, because of its age, wooden support structures need replacing. “It’s been well managed and the soil fertility is good. It is prone to frosts but there are water storage tanks and overhead sprinklers to fight that.

“It’s normally an early start orchard but only just scraped in this year because of the season’s unusually warm weather.”

Aaron grew up at Ohawe Beach near Hawera, with his three sisters. Initially his father Peter worked in the freezing works before changing careers to become a policeman. He now works with people on probation. Aaron’s mum Suzanne is a registered nurse, who now works part-time.

Both are immensely proud of what their son has achieved at such a young age.

Diverse crops

Aaron attended Hawera High School where he took horticulture as one of his subjects.

“We were fortunate that we had good teachers and I really enjoyed it.” However, Aaron was advised to study resource management at Massey. “I didn’t like it and soon switched to horticulture.”

Part of the course required work experience and Aaron set out to learn as much as he could about diverse crops and topics including beekeeping, saffron, potatoes, apples, pears, kiwifruit and the natural sweetener stevia.

“I really enjoyed beekeeping and now managing pollination is one of my roles at Aongatete.”

His plans for his own orchard include upgrading the support structures and planting the bare block in kiwifruit. “I’d love to plant a new variety but can’t afford the licence fee. But I’d be keen to be part of trials with any new varieties.”

His hopes other young people will be able to get into the industry either through purchasing an orchard or perhaps a share agreement, similar to that in the dairy industry.

“Maybe there could be a scheme where young growers could lease the vines and manage the orchard, meaning the owners could still enjoy living there without all the work.”

Aaron also hopes his orchard will be the stepping stone to a bigger one sometime in the future.


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