Mega-greenhouse arrives for year-round salad growing

Leaderbrand chief executive Richard Burke said the huge greenhouses were common in places like Europe and Japan but there were few in New Zealand and none that were used to grow crops directly in the ground.

Funded in part with a $15 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund, the project hit some snags last year as the country went into lockdown and the border was closed.

But, despite delays, the 11 hectare greenhouse was now sitting at Napier Port, after arriving from France. Construction was expected to be completed by June and Burke hoped for the first harvest 10 weeks later.

The idea was that it would allow for year-round salad production and a step towards a more environmentally sustainable operation. It would also be used to trial new crops, Burke said.

The greenhouse created a more consistent crop, unaffected by weather, and would create more jobs throughout the year.

This controlled environment meant less fertiliser was needed for plants to grown and water use could be precisely controlled, Burke said.

A project like this had not been done before because it was capital intensive and the results were not certain for growers.

Salad growing operations had not been particularly sophisticated in New Zealand but the Provincial Growth Fund had given Burke the confidence to take the plunge. Winter salad supply would be improved but the greenhouse would not meet all the demand.

"This is a pilot programme to find out what the financial implications are and how it's going to operate, so we can see what is the next step," Burke said.

Leaderbrand was the largest broccoli grower in New Zealand and employed about 200 permanent staff, with an additional 300 seasonal workers during the harvest.

Most of its crops were sold on the domestic market, exporting only squash and processed sweetcorn.

The greenhouse farming project started after extensive research in 2019 and should have been operational by now. But the lockdown in March last year significantly slowed construction.

Subsequent lockdowns and ongoing international shipping delays and border restrictions had created further delays, he said.

SUPPLIED
Leaderbrand chief executive Richard Burke says the covered growing operation is a pilot to find out of this system is viable.

But the concrete for the irrigation shed had been laid and a new 40 million litre dam and treatment tank had been built. The greenhouse would be supplied from the dam using only treated rainwater.

"Throughout the whole build we were meant to have teams from the Richel Group, in France, visit the site and guide our local teams. This has now had to be conducted over Zoom meetings. It's not ideal but it's all part of this new world we live in," Burke said.

The steel framing was due to be put up in late September by 30 specialist workers, he said.

"The newness about it is the scale and the size and what we are doing underneath it. It's just under 11ha under one big house. We will grow there in a similar way to how we do it outdoors, so it's a grown in the ground product using tractors, inside the greenhouse."

The greenhouse would be eight metres tall at its apex and six metres at the entrance so that tractors could drive in and out.

Burke would not disclose the value of the development but said it was significant and the final costs were still largely unknown.

Header photo caption: SUPPLIED. Leaderbrand plans to build a 11 hectare mega-greenhouse on this site near Gisborne.
Source and Photo Courtesy of Stuff

Source: stuff