We
see ourselves as an experienced service organization with the best
interests of our clients at the heart of all that we do. Our goal
is to provide an ethical, intuitive, sensible service through which
our clients are able to gain competitive advantage in discerning
fruit markets. They do so by the production of sustained volumes
of fruit of the best size range, flavour, highest nutritional value
and longest shelf life, grown with minimal chemical residues, and
with lowest adverse impact to the environment. Our role is to help
our valued clients do this through the systematic implementation
of low-risk production systems that bring together the appropriate
mix of the best elements of a wide range of production systems,
from low-impact to so-called "high-tech". Our aim is to
do things right the first time.
Our approach
is based on three key principles:
Acceptance
of certain facts about how our fruit industry works
Understanding of the issue of fruit quality
Appropriate action for a given situation
We accept
that the key to our clients gaining and retaining competitive advantage
in discerning markets is the dependable cost-effective production
of highest quality, safe to eat fruit., no matter what fruit crop
is being produced.
We accept
that the parties that benefit most from horticultural operations
as they are currently are seldom the producers or property owners,
but the wider "service industry", such as chemical suppliers.
In many cases, the cost of producing fruit is now equal to, if not
exceeded by, the productions costs. To our way of thinking, this
makes no business sense, since producers are not truly in control
of their operations.
We accept
that three powerful forces have recently placed heavy pressure on
our horticultural operations:
• Astronomical
price increases of so-called "basic inputs", such
as fertilisers, fungicides,
herbicides and plant growth regulants, as
well as general uncertainty as to availability of
several of these "basics".
• Increased
demands from consumers
for safe to eat produce, with minimal or no
chemical residues.
• Climate
change and the cumulative effects of conventional farming
practices on the
degradation of our natural capital base (fertile
soil, clean water and air, abundance of
beneficial soil microbes and biological control
agents). |
The question
is, what can be done about all this? We believe solutions lie
in basic understanding. We accept above all, then, that
we cannot control what we do not understand.
We understand
that fruit quality does not arise by accident, but rather as the
result of effective management of the four links of the fruit quality
chain:
• Quality
originates in the orchards, as the result of our choice
of management
interventions, at each stage of the fruit
trees' crop cycle.
• Quality
is enhanced by good grading, sizing, waxing and packaging
in the pack-house
• Quality
is conserved
by gentle harvesting, appropriate application of post-harvest
fungicides, shipping and storage under correct
temperatures, and sale within the shelf life
of the fruit
• Quality
is rewarded by successful marketing to satisfied, discerning,
loyal customers |
We believe the
key is the role that producers play in their choice of management
interventions to achieve their goals. This is a matter of doing
the right thing at the right time in the right situation.
Our approach
is to help our clients understand what these appropriate
actions might be, and to help them get this right the first time.
Above all, we understand that we can provide our clients
with the practical means of taking back and maintaining true
control of their horticultural operations.
How is this
done?
We believe that production
systems should be designed to operate under simplified management
with lower stress and decreased reliance on expensive chemical,
energy and financial inputs. Production systems can and should be
designed or altered to operate making fullest use of so-called "free"
inputs (for example, light and carbon dioxide), whilst conserving
the natural capital base of soil fertility, air and water
quality, presence of soil beneficial micro- and macro- flora and
fauna and biological control agents, such as insect parasitoids
and predators. Each of these components has a value to our clients.
The principles and practices
behind our production systems are directly applicable to all
fruit crops, be they subtropical crops such as citrus, avocadoes,
mangoes and litchis, or others such as olives.
Finally, we take courage
and inspiration from the following words of a wise man, and leave
the "genius" part to Nature.
"Any
intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent. It takes a touch of genius- and a lot of courage- to move
in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein
(Quote courtesy
of Kevin Harris, 1995: "Collected Quotes of Albert Einstein")
Contact
us to discuss how.
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