Growing apples on your whenua

An apple orchard needs a decent block of well-drained land, a winter cold enough to set the fruit, and plenty of labour at harvest. This factsheet explains what the trees need, how an orchard is planted and managed, and what happens at harvest and in storage.

It gives the cost of running an orchard per hectare, with a Hawke's Bay orchard as a worked example of what a block that size can earn, and covers export standards, food safety registration, freshwater farm plans and industry levies.