New Zealand-grown organic onions have landed in Europe for the first time.
Leading grower-packer-exporter Bostock New Zealand shipped the initial consignment, with the company’s organic growing manager, Sam Reynolds, traveling to Europe to inspect the quality of produce on arrival earlier this week.
“It was very exciting to open the container and see that the quality of our Bostock Organic Onions was extremely good,” Reynolds explained. “They had been on the sea for six weeks, so we wanted to ensure that our European customers were receiving the highest quality New Zealand organic onions.
“We were so pleased to open the container and see our onions, looking the same as they did when they left our packhouse in New Zealand.”
Reynolds and other members of the Bostock team are meeting with European organic onion growers and service companies to build relationships and learn better growing techniques.
“We’ve gained a better understanding of market requirements both in terms of quality and timing,” Reynolds added.
“There is a small but important overseas market window that New Zealand organic onions can fill in mid-April to mid-July every year.”
Bostock New Zealand owner, John Bostock, highlighted the lengths his company currently goes to in order to produce organic onions.
“We can’t use chemicals to spray the weeds. We have to hand weed all our onions and we rely on expensive GPS technology to help with this weeding process,” he explained.
“We will have over 200 staff weeding one onion paddock at the necessary time during the season. The team will each have a little knife and be hand weeding every individual onion plant. It’s an intensive process having a whole field weeded by hand.”
Unperturbed by the additional requirements, Bostock said the company was committed to increasing its organic footprint.
“We need to ensure that our organic growing team is equipped with all the necessary skills required to grow the best organic onions in the world,” Bostock said. “Investing in technology and innovation is so important.”
