Accelerated start to Wattie's 24/7 pea harvest to ensure peas timed to perfection
2009-11-25
Heinz Wattie's Christchurch factory will quickly move into top gear this week as it starts processing one of the Company's signature crops – peas – 24-hours a day, seven days a week for the next three months at the rate of over 400 tonne a day.
The accelerated start follows record plantings during July and August, when a record area for that period was sown by contracted growers. These good conditions have set the factory up for a solid start to the season and moving quickly into full production
Agricultural Manager Mark Daniels says in general the crop is looking a lot better than last year, and he is expecting better yields, although it is very early days.
"The pea season is one of the great harbingers of Christmas and summer, but for everyone involved there won't be a day off for the next three months –except Christmas Day, if we are lucky.
"Our job is to give our consumers the sweetest, yummiest peas, and the secret is in the way we coordinate our planting and harvesting. This comes down to the 'science' and experience of Wattie's pea operations in Canterbury for 40 years.
"The peas being harvested today will be individually snap frozen within about two hours of harvest, locking in flavour and goodness. You won't get fresher peas, and even home grown peas are very seldom timed to such perfection."
Heinz Wattie's will harvest in excess of 30,000 tonnes of peas, a process that involves around 250 growers and over 500 paddocks. At this time of the year, pea processing overlaps with the broad bean crop. The Christchurch pea tonnages will be supplemented by peas grown and processed for Heinz Wattie's in Gisborne. Peas contribute to the total of around 130,000 tonne of local fruit and vegetables grown for the Wattie's branded products annually.
Grower David Morrish of Broadfield near Lincoln is one a small number of pea growers whose family has grown peas for Wattie's since the Christchurch plant opened. Almost 40 years go, it was his father, Dick, and brother, Richard.
"The quality of the peas today is better and harvesting process much simpler. We grow peas because they suit our rotation. After the harvest we put the lambs in, and then plant wheat."
David Morrish also grows broad beans (harvested last Saturday) and green beans (to be planted next week) for Wattie's
Mark Daniels says that with growers like David Morrish, Wattie's has developed a reputation internationally for the excellent quality of its peas, so Kiwi consumers who buy Wattie's frozen and canned peas can be assured they are getting the very best.
"After satisfying New Zealand's demand for high quality, locally grown produce in Wattie's frozen and canned peas, consumers in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America get the benefits of a sustainably New Zealand-grown frozen and dehydrated peas."
(The Christchurch factory is the largest producer in the world of dehydrated peas.)
