Meet the farmers

Omaha Organic Berries

• Blueberry

Omaha Organic Berries is a certified organic blueberry orchard, located an hour North of Auckland New Zealand, by the beach, in Omaha. The orchard is unique in that it has created a wonderful balance between modern technology, organic growing principles and commercial priorities.

The owners Robert and Shannon Auton believe there is a definite place for quality organic products in a competitive food market, where quality and taste and health are important to the consumer. They are continuing to develop the “Omaha Blueberries” brand here in New Zealand and offshore.

Kiwi Organics

Owned by Mike and Bridget Parker, Kiwi Organics Tolaga Bay, is the country’s largest producer of Certified Organic Corn (Maize) and Popcorn. The family property is second generation and the couples three children are actively involved in all aspects of its production.

The farm is flanked by natural streams and rivers and large stands of native bush.

Mike and Bridget have farmed organically in the East Coast region for more than 20 years. Currently they are BioGro and Asure certified. Bio dynamic principles are used. Products are branded as Kiwi Organics.

Certified organic lamb and beef are also grown on the property. The Parkers have an organic sheep stud.

The properties, “Broadlands” and “fenlands” encompass 1000 acres of tiled fertile flats, and are  mixed-cropping and livestock finishing farms. They use modern machinery and techniques to achieve high production and efficiencies. The family has successfully grown kiwifruit, squash, popcorn, maize, beef, lamb, sweetcorn, beans, kumera, basil, leek, potatoes and peas for both domestic and international markets.

The challenges of organic farming are well suited to the East Coast climate and fertile soil-types of the district.

Products are certified organic, gluten free and grown in nuclear and GE Free NZ.

For further info see their website www.kiwiorganics.com or email info@kiwiorganics.com.

Kaakaariki Organics

• Buttercup Squash
• Potatoes
• Pumpkin
• Sweetcorn

Kaakaariki organics is a Father and son run farm. We have about 60ha of certified cropable land based in Hastings, New Zealand. The organic crops we specialise in are – Potatoes (local market and process), Buttercup squash (exported to japan and local market), Crown pumpkin (local market and process), Supermarket squash and butternut (local market) and Sweetcorn/Maize. We have been growing organically for 14 years and we are certified with assurequality. We decided to move into organics mainly as we believed in the organic concept and that there had to be a better and safer way to grow vegetables, instead of using the harsh chemicals that we were told to use growing conventional. We also wanted to improve the quality and structure of our land as we noticed a decline of our soils over the years growing conventional.Since moving into organics we have definitely found it a challenge but as the years have gone by we have learned alot and have developed systems and principles that have made it easier, also we have seen a huge change in the quality of our soils,they have improved significantly (eg. the number of earthworms have significantly increased). We have thoroughly enjoyed the challenges with organics and have found it rewarding and we are very happy that we made the decision to convert to organics 14 years ago.