In his orchard on the banks of Lake Karapiro, ZESPRI™ ORGANIC Kiwifruit grower Tim Oliver has counted an extraordinary 37 species of bird life.  The land is teeming with other life, too – insects, worms and the unseen healthy bacteria that help nurture good soil.

Tim’s family owns Ku-ring-gai, a farm that includes 10.5 canopy hectares  (26 acres) of ZESPRI™ GREEN ORGANIC Kiwifruit and 1.8 canopy hectares (4.5 acres) of ZESPRI™ GOLD Organic Kiwifruit, certified by Bio-Gro, New Zealand’s organic accreditation organization.

Oppenheimer will market ZESPRI™ GREEN ORGANIC Kiwifruit grown by Tim and his colleagues throughout the summer and fall.  While our volume will be slightly lower than last year, the fruit size will be larger.  We will bring the fruit to market in bulk and also in fully compostable Earthcycle packaging, a pack-style consistent with Tim’s sustainable philosophy.

Tim comes from a tradition of farming, but had studied and worked in cities for more than 20 years before returning to agricultural life in the early 1980s.

“It was important to my wife Janet and I to raise our daughters in a rural setting with clean air and water, birds, trees and animals,” he said.  “We wanted to have the flexibility and responsibility of developing our own orchard, and of living and working in harmony with our environment.”

The Olivers began converting their kiwifruit orchard to organic practices in late 1992.

”Our business is operated to be economically sustainable, so as to support my family and staff, but also to improve the soil, protect the environment and to provide healthy and wholesome fruit of the highest quality – guaranteed safe and tasty to eat,” Tim said.

“The organic kiwifruit we grow is alive with goodness from converted sunlight,” he continued.  “It’s the result of a healthy, living system of agriculture where diversity of soil life is encouraged rather than being killed by toxic pesticides and herbicides, which we never use.”

Tim said that he is always learning and trying new approaches and techniques to improve the soil and fruit quality.

“An organic orchard has much deeper top soil, much more microbial activity and vastly increased water holding capacity than conventional soil,” he explained.  “Our own soil now has top soil nearly twice as deep as when we first started.”

His vision is to develop a balanced and healthy soil that will make the plants resilient to weather and climate variation and unattractive to insect pests, while producing the best crops of nutritious, safe and tasty fruit.

“In five years’ time, I believe we will have achieved this goal and be able to demonstrate that there is a better, non-chemical and more profitable way of farming that helps our consumers and also enhances our environment,” he said.

“It’s about balance and letting nature do what it should do.  The result is vitality and human health.  That comes from health soil and healthy plants giving healthy food for healthy people.”

Tim’s passion for organic growing extends into New Zealand’s kiwifruit producer community. He has been involved with organic kiwifruit support groups, and has represented the Certified Organic Kiwifruit Growers of New Zealand on the Kiwifruit Growers’ Forum since 1998.

Tim is also involved in regional environmental protection and saving native forests, helping judge New Zealand’s Farm Environment Awards and, with a business partner, in a beekeeping business based at the orchard.  The honeybee operation employs four staff and is for pollination of fruit crops and pastures and also for supply of honey to New Zealand and international markets.  It entails about 2,500 hives in New Zealand and 1,000 in the tropical South Pacific.