Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower Competition Receives Overwhelming Support

Organisers of the 2015 Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower competition have been overwhelmed by support for this year’s event.

Almost 40 organisations from around the Bay of Plenty have committed sponsorship, prizes, people and resources to the event; and all 288 tickets have sold out for the gala dinner and prize-giving in the evening.

This year’s event takes place on Wednesday 24 June at Mills Reef Winery where eight contestants will battle it out for the 2015 title.

At the same time more than 150 high school students from ten Western Bay Schools along with additional students from Rotorua Boys' High and St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton will be introduced to the exciting opportunities within the industry through ‘Cultivate Your Career’ - an event running concurrently with the competition.

“This year’s sponsorship and support reflects the commitment from organisations all over the Bay of Plenty to develop our future horticultural leaders and to attract fresh new talent into the industry through Cultivate Your Career,” says New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated President, Neil Trebilco.

Gold sponsor Zespri is a regular supporter of the annual event and is committed to recognising the young people who will one day lead the industry.

“We have some fantastic young people in our industry and events like this recognise these future leaders and show other young people across the region the great career opportunities on offer in the kiwifruit industry.

“Attracting and developing young talent is vital to the kiwifruit industry’s continued success and Zespri is proud to support the 2015 Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower of the Year,” says Zespri Chief Executive Lain Jager.

Apata Grow is also a proud gold sponsor of this year’s event.

“Our business is based on highly skilled, professional people working together to achieve agreed and shared goals, so for us it was a natural fit to align with the Young Fruit Grower competition to support the development of tomorrow's professionals.

“Attracting, developing and retaining high performing individuals is both our industry's greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity, so I applaud the event organisers and our co-sponsors for their commitment to this year's competitors,” says Apata Grow General Manager, Sonia Whiteman.

Spectators are welcome at the day event which starts at around 9am. Attendance is free and the Mills Reef Restaurant will be open during the day.

For more information about the event, including sponsors, supporters, event timelines, contestants, Cultivate Your Career and live social media feeds go to www.bopyoungfruitgrower.co.nz.

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