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Kiwifruit Summer Pruning Season

After a long winter our kiwifruit vines are back and ready to grow!

Are you ready to be part of New Zealand’s largest industries?

We are looking for people like you to help ensuring our kiwifruit vines grow healthy and produce yummy fruits!

Join us for the Kiwifruit Summer Pruning Season!

Kiwifruit Summer Pruning
Kiwifruit Summer Pruning
Kiwifruit Summer Pruning
Kiwifruit Summer Pruning
Kiwifruit Summer Pruning
Kiwifruit Summer Pruning

Join the Kiwifruit Summer Pruning Season!

What is the Kiwifruit Summer Pruning?

After a long cold winter, where the Kiwifruit vines were almost ‘dormant’, now they start to flourish again.

Leaves come back, and with it flower buds – that will become flowers earlier next year.

Summer pruning work basically means making sure the plant is growing how it should, removing blank shoots, training canes into strings, removing bad or diseased flower buds, and pruning male vines to ensure our soon-to-be flowers from the female vines receive enough sun light.

Kiwifruit Summer Pruning

This is how an orchard is looking now

Why is the Summer Pruning important?

During the winter pruning, the job was to basically arrange the kiwifruit vines so when they start to grow, they would grow in the right direction.

In the summer pruning, this job continues, but now with the vines already showing actual signs of the growth direction.

Summer pruning job is essential to guarantee all vines are growing in the right direction and there is no diseased in any part of the plant. Removing bad shaped flower buds also helps to make the good buds grow faster and bigger, generating better flowers and in the future sweeter fruits!

Kiwifruit Flower Bud

This is how a flower bud looks like

Kiwifruit Summer Pruning

Tipping work being done

How to do Summer Pruning?

Summer pruning is a bit technical, but not as much as winter pruning.

On your first day at work we will give you all the guidelines of what should be pruned, trimmed, or removed. You will also learn how to identify bad flower buds, how tipping works, and all the ins and outs of summer pruning.

So don’t worry, you will soon realise it’s not nearly as complicated as it looks!

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Why Garcia Contracting?

Operating since 2011, we pride ourselves to be one of the longest living contracting services provider in the Bay of Plenty.

At Garcia, we value our people. Our team is made of people from all around the world, and diversity is part of who we are.

We do our best to deliver a high standard service to our customers while maintaining our compliance, legal obligations and strong Health & Safety measures to provide the best work environment to our staff.

With Garcia Contracting you can have the peace of mind you will get paid exactly what we agree upon signing the contract, all following New Zealand’s legislation. We believe all employee’s legal rights should be respected, and we are proud to say we make this our standard process.

We provide full training, industry standard rates and immediate start for all those hard-workers out there who are looking forward to join the kiwifruit industry in 2021!

Frequently Asked Questions

The kiwifruit Summer Pruning Season starts in October and goes through to February

Starting and finishing hours may vary due to weather or other factors. A regular working day starts at 7.30-8am and goes until 5-5.30pm. There are some occasions when we can work during the night, but these will be communicated and will be optional for those who are keen to work extra hours.

Unfortunately the Kiwifruit tree is very sensitive. During rainy days, if we do any maintenance work on the plant, there is a high-risk of the plant getting a disease that will eventually kill it, compromising next year’s crop. For this reason, we never work on rainy days.

Your contract will be on a casual basis. What makes it very flexible for both of us. That means when there is work available, we will contact you. At that stage you can tell us if you will be attending to work on that day, and/or for how long you will work. You can find more information about casual employment contracts at this link: https://www.employment.govt.nz/starting-employment/who-is-an-employee/types-of-employee/#scrollto-casual-employees

Not at all, but it helps. Summer pruning work is a bit physically demanding,  but there is no heavy lifting. Since the vines are usually located about 1.80 metres from the ground, the only requirement is to be able to keep your arms raised to perform the required tasks.

Yes! We would love to take you and your friends on board to work together.

We have work throughout the Bay of Plenty region, but the orchards are mainly located in Katikati, Te Puke, Te Puna, Waihi, Maketu and Paengaroa. The locations can vary from day to day. As soon as our clients tell us where we’ll be working, we’ll let you know. This usually happens the night before work, or at latest very early in the morning.

We can organize vans or car pooling if you don’t have personal transport. Conditions apply, depending on where you are located.

No, but we have a few partners who can provide accommodation for you. Please visit https://garciacontracting.co.nz/accommodations/ to find more details.

Orchards are often quite far from the town, so we recommend you bring enough food and at least 1-2 litres of water to drink during the day. You can wear any clothes, but we recommend you wear comfortable and light clothes. Covered shoes is a must, to avoid any Health & Safety issues. We also recommend you bring Sunscreen.

No. Kiwifruit work is not eligible to provide you with a work visa, according to New Zealand Immigration. Be aware if any contractor promises you a work visa, and always seek immigration advice or call Immigration New Zealand if you have any questions. Garcia is an SSE certificated company. Therefore, SSE visas are the only type we may be able to assist you with.

Yes, we can provide you the necessary documentation on this case.

Yes! Anyone with 15+ years old are welcome to work during the summer pruning season. But keep in mind that if you are under 16, you will need to provide writen authorization from your parents or tutors, ok?

Of course! The Kiwifruit industry is a very democratic, there is space for everyone, and kiwis are more than welcome to join us.

Yes, unfortunately it is well known that some kiwifruit contractors may not be compliant with New Zealand legislation, and can even get away without giving employees what is their rights. You can rest assured Garcia Contracting complies with all industry standards and New Zealand legislation. We believe in respecting our worker’s rights and providing a great work environment for them.

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

This season is now over and applications are closed.

You can join our waiting list to get notified when new job positions are open or, apply to work in the current season.

JOB APPLICATION FORM

Please fill the form below and one of our team members will contact you as soon as possible.

We look forward to working with you this season!

 

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Summer Pruning

Waiting List

Please leave your details below and our team will contact you as soon as the Summer Pruning Season starts once again and new job positions become available.