An 80ha cherry project near Cromwell in New Zealand’s Central Otago cherry-growing region is open to investment offers.
Hortinvest, the company behind the investment project, said the site is double the size of its first cherry offering, and contains a “spread of proven varieties to lengthen the harvest period and capture the fast-moving Chinese New Year market globally, and Christmas market domestically.”
Project and orchard development manager, Ross Kirk, said Hortinvest’s point of difference is that it’s a fully-integrated company. “We source the land, purchase machinery, develop and manage the orchard, then pack, export and market our own fruit, using state-of-the-art orchard and packhouse systems.”
“There are no third parties clipping the ticket along the supply chain because we have the experience and skills ourselves to manage an orchard project from set-up to market,” he said.”
Once the 53,000-tree orchard comes into full maturity by 2025/2026, it is projected to have capacity to supply 18-20 tonnes of cherries from each one of its 80ha.
Kirk said the NZ$15.5m (US$10.6m) project is expected to deliver an internal rate of return of 25 per cent over the next 10 years.
