Auckland-based Status Produce is New Zealand’s leading tomato producer. Status Produce grows its tomatoes in more than 20 hectares of environmentally controlled glasshouses in and around Auckland, growing approximately 10 million kilograms of produce each year. The company also strives to be residue free, as tomatoes are picked, packed, distributed, and delivered throughout New Zealand within 24 hours of picking and 36 hours for some of its export markets.

Status Produce began as a vision in 1993 by John Becroft, a second-generation tomato grower and Gary Hemmingson, a packhouse manager. At the time, the New Zealand supermarket industry was demanding 365 days of tomato products and the team trail blazed their way to bring advanced growing technologies and glasshouse design to bring their products to market. In 2000 the Tredigda brothers operating as PTO, and Turners& Growers formed a joint venture to build a new 4.2 Ha glasshouse. Turners & Growers later purchased all of the PTO operation, and then purchased Status Produce. Today, the company’s largest customers include fast food companies like McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and Domino’s and regional supermarket chains including Foodstuffs and their 3 retail outlets, New World, Pak’NSave and 4 Square.

UNIQUENESS IN THE TOMATO INDUSTRY

Status Produce continues to focus on the end customer and their needs incorporating a state-of-the-art produce grading line. “Our grading line allows us to photograph every tomato going down the line to recognise the size and shape of the eight tones of tomatoes processed each hour,” Colin Lyford, General Manager of Status Produce, says. “Depending on our clients’ needs, they are graded by weight, colour and shape, and go down one of the 19 different lanes to meet that specific specification”. Quality control is ever present throughout the Status Produce operation. It ensures product is not only of the highest quality found anywhere, but that it is grown in environmentally friendly conditions and picked and packed using only the very best of methods and health and safety systems. Status Produce prides itself on using biological controls and other natural methods to encourage pesticide free growing conditions. “Status Produce uses bumblebees to pollinate our 20 hectares of tomatoes naturally, and when you rely on Bumble Bee, you cannot be careless with pesticides” Lyford says. “Our pest management approach is designed to produce the highest quality product for consumers. This approach ensures the tomatoes are grown in a controlled environment. And with the high standards adopted through the supply chain post harvest the tomatoes that arrive on the shelves are of the highest standards to deliver a fantastic taste experience.”

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES

Status Produce’s continuous improvement strategies and development plans are based around simple business components, such as analysis for safety incidents, quality issues, sales and product size. “We have started with the bold business goal to be the best tomato producers in New Zealand,” Lyford says. “We developed a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to highlight key opportunities and incorporate these into the goals and work streams required to achieve our goals. Teams at each glasshouse and packhouse develop plans and activities to deliver the overall goal of producing and supplying the best tomatoes in New Zealand.”

“The Status Produce workplace is constantly being improved, using simple tools that help us deliver best in class operational improvement such as PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act),” he continues. “When improvement is seen as a result of implementing a planned change, then this improvement is rolled out across our operation, through training and controls.”

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS

Not only has Status Produce implemented green initiatives when it comes to growing products, but government legislation and other green programs have been put in place geared toward the success of reducing global greenhouse gases. “In New Zealand, we have a carbon tax that has been initiated in 2010 called the Emissions Trading Scheme that stems from the Kyoto protocol.” Lyford says. “Its goal is to reduce the emission of pollutants. But in our industry, plants love CO2 and need it for our plants to grow. The irony is that if I could afford it, I would produce more CO2 because the plants would grow more and produce more!” “Because of this government legislation, we find ways to reduce gas consumption and costs,” he says.

“As we rely heavily on water for our tomatoes, we catch excess water for redistribution into the water supply solution.” Lyford says they catch the rain water from the glasshouse roof  and sterilise it by ultraviolet light.. The company also prevents runoff or emissions from the glasshouses into water ways because of the nutrients. “Its good for the plants but bad for the rivers.” he continues.

Lyford says in the future, the company plans on implementing better technology in terms of energy efficiency. “We’re looking into thermal curtains that follow the line of the celling and trap the heat being used in our glasshouse, making for 10 to 20 percent more energy efficiency,” he says. “We’re also looking into ventilation systems, If you have to open some vents to let humidity escape, you loose much of that valuable CO2 and we’re looking into ventilation fans to move air around to better manage the climate inside .” he says.

CUSTOMER AND INDUSTRY TRENDS

Apart from safer and residue-free tomatoes, customers also want better-tasting produce. “We hear from customers that they want tomatoes to taste how they did when they were kids,” Lyford says. “The consumer in New Zealand has suffered a bit due to the logistics of getting product to market, and the shelf life needed by the retailer. To achieve this, product is often picked before the full flavour has developed.” Status Produce is working to improve this, with some trials in place to pick ripe tomatoes daily with delivery direct to store. “Feedback so far is terrific, and we will look to extend this initiative to more stores.”

“Business has actually improved in the last few years considering the down economy,” he says. “We’ve gotten stronger by being focussed on growing better tomatoes, and delivering what the customer wants. We haven’t gotten any bigger, just better at what we do. In the past, out industry has been run like a grower-focussed business and we’re hoping to change toward a supplier-focussed business aimed at producing what the customer asks for.”