GOLDEN BAY FRUIT

Background – Partnering for Success

MAF RODA NZ’s robotics and automation of post-harvest processing of fruit and vegetable packhouses is helping industry leaders in New Zealand’s horticulture sector to build their businesses, the New Zealand economy, and contribute to global food security:

Golden Bay Fruit, based in Motueka at the top of New Zealand’s South Island is home to over 750 hectares of apple orchards and over 100 hectares of kiwifruit. The vertically integrated operation, made up of multi-generational family orchards, exports produce directly to over 25 different countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Challenge – Modernisation and efficiency to meet international demand

In 2019, Golden Bay Fruit upgraded its apple packing line to meet growing demand and expectations from offshore customers.

Modernising technology and robotics ensures efficiency among the labour force. Automated fruit-packing saves expenditure on tedious work for people, increases production, and improves the consistency of the product.

Several years on from future-proofing the company through new apple packing facilities, the cooperative was looking to also upgrade its kiwifruit operations through the latest machinery – Golden Bay Fruit was operating several packhouses that had older equipment and heavy labour requirements.

Golden Bay Fruit engaged MAF RODA AGROBOTIC, which provides innovative end to end solutions for automation, grading, sorting, and packing in the fresh fruit & vegetables industry.

MAF RODA’s integral solution, from bin dump to palletising, including electronic sorting, grading and automatic packing, is about delivering customers quality all the way.

Golden Bay Fruit made one of its existing sheds bigger and brought in a turnkey end-to-end MAF Roda system, from bin handling through to palletisation of packed products.

Evan Heywood, Golden Bay Fruit CEO, says that MAF RODA was selected for several reasons:
“We like MAF RODA because they had a good reputation and they also had a good team based in New Zealand – and that’s the one thing we struggled with at our packhouse, not having the local support and service that we were really needed.”

As part of its standard practice, service from MAF RODA has been an ongoing process. The NZ team provides 24-hour service and support to all customers.
“They are down here quite often, checking in and making sure everything is running properly. Their whole team is outstanding to deal with. From their sales manager to the guys who installed the equipment, the servicing – they made business pretty easy.”

Results – Operational efficiency and better quality

Modernising further with MAF RODA’s system had significant benefits for Golden Bay Fruit, particularly through workforce optimisation and speed of operation.

The automation meant going from 150 to around 45 people – producing the same number of trays and packed faster than in the old facilities. The positive results range from labour and production efficiency through to better fruit handling and more accuracy around defect sorting.

“We were finishing a week earlier than what we would previously,” says Evan Heywood. We are packing our class 2 at the same time, whereas previously we would have to bin it off and then rerun that through when we had an opening in the class one - sometimes that class 2 fruit was sitting outside and getting soft, especially if we were under pressure. So, it's a lot better for fruit quality as well.”

Future – Technological innovation, people and sustainability

Kiwifruit is New Zealand’s most valuable crop export. Horticulture is of increasing importance to the national economy – for the year to 30 June 2025, horticulture’s export revenue was projected to hit a record $8.5B and to approach $10B by 2029. This has been driven by kiwifruit and apple exports.

Golden Bay Fruit is always looking forward, using the best mix of people and technology while strengthening sustainability credentials, including through using solar energy.

In the big picture, the New Zealand coalition government has a goal of doubling exports by 2034 to improve the economy – the food & fibre sector accounts for 80+% of NZ exports (New Zealand is self-sufficient in fruit & vegetable, meat, dairy, fish and seafood).

The Aotearoa Horticulture Action Plan, which aims to double farmgate value by 2035, emphasizes collaboration, science and knowledge. The post-harvest period is pivotal to growing New Zealand's horticulture sector – efficiently and attractively presenting fruit to the global marketplace through technology and skills.

Moving forward, technology is at the heart of competitiveness. The MAF RODA Group devotes an average of 3% of its annual turnover to technological innovation. The group’s most ambitious systems use AI and big data to provide the most accurate internal and external analysis – including colour, shape, diameter and weight – increasing the quality of the end product.