Andrew Arbuckle the general manager of Viticulture New Zealand has seen the Marlborough region grow from developing 500 acres of land into grape production per year, to now developing close to 3,000 acres per year. Can the region handle the expansion?
"Definitely," Andrew said enthusiastically, "the markets are there, and the service industry is keeping up with that growth. The only area of concern is the labour side - whether there is going to be enough labour to cope with the expansion coming on."
Previously spending 10 years in the Hawkes Bay in the apple, pear and kiwifruit industry, Andrew has since accumulated over 12 years of experience in the grape growing industry. Last year he formed Viticulture New Zealand that provides quality viticultural services to the Marlborough, Nelson and Wairarapa regions. Three general divisions cover development, from bare paddock to production, management which provides total vineyard management for overseas and local clients, and labour which provides contract pruning, leaf plucking, bud rubbing, wire lifting, hand harvesting and vine training.
Right now they are experiencing a huge expansion phase with big changes in the last 5 years from the development of 5-10 acre vineyards, to today where most are 50-100 acres in size.
"Where we would do a total of perhaps 150-200 acres in a season, we are now developing at some level, a 1,000 acres in one season, just through our own organisation in our regions," Andrew said.
Realising the importance of the labour factor they developed a training programme which has been running for the past 5 years, and this year they have again been awarded a WINZ training programme. Taking people from the WINZ register and putting them through a weeks practical training on vineyards, to the eventual placement with an employer.
"Last season we put through 120 people, 250 over the past 5-6 years with a 95% success rate. A lot of these people are still in the industry now. We made a commitment that our goal is to keep people fully employed. Viticulture work has a tendency to be seasonal, but if we want to keep good people we can't keep dropping them."
Labour services manager Bridget Johnson agrees. She has been in the industry six years and having really enjoyed working outdoors, and progressing through a number of vineyards, completed a two year correspondence EIT viticulture course and she has been with Viticulture NZ for the past year. Her role is employing staff and keeping them happy, making sure they get want they need and deserve.
"The most satisfying thing is starting someone from scratch who hasn't been involved in the industry at all. Being able to put them in place with a crew and train them up, and keep them going through to be a full time worker for our company, and see them progress upward within the company," Bridget said of the job she clearly enjoys.
Heather Ross is the vineyard manager for all the management blocks Viticulture NZ manages, which currently number seven ranging in size from 50 to two acres, controlling all the day to day tasks required. Heather has worked with Andrew for six years now, working her way up through the ranks and is also enrolling with the EIT viticulture course. She enjoys seeing the fruits of all the hard labour over the 12 month period turn into a really good harvest, and though they aren't always that way, this one has just been particularly good.
"We've had a really nice growing season, a nice period of ripening with very little rain which has kept the disease away, and good temperatures to ripen the fruit. This ones been a boomer," she said.
