Kiwifruit picking - Analysis and Conclusion

The kiwifruit harvest season is ending in a few days. It was an interesting experience for me, as you can read in Part 1 and Part 2. My goal was to find out more about the kiwifruit industry, and perhaps earn some spare cash in the process. Among the things that I wanted to find out were:

Question 1: How does the kiwifruit industry work?

My research only covered the harvesting. The pay rate for kiwifruit picking is between NZD14.5-16.5 per bin, depending on the orchard. My crew picked between 7-9 bins per person per day, making between NZD100-130. Over a 14-day period, I worked 76 hours and made NZD1009, which translates to about NZD13.3/hr. This is actually below New Zealand's minimum wage of NZD13.75/hr, which means I would have been better off working at McDonald's. :-(
        However, there are backpackers on other crews that made over NZD20/hr. Obviously, they made good money. Why the discrepancy? Two reasons: the orchard where I worked paid less (NZD14.5/bin), and I picked slow. I estimate that I picked about 6 bins/day. Each bin is about 400kg, which means that I picked about 2400kg of kiwifruits every day. That's 2.4 tons of kiwifruit every day.
        At New World, a NZ supermarket chain, kiwifruits are selling for NZD1.99/kg. At that price, those 2.4 tons of fruits would retail for 4,776 dollars. How much money did I get? About 87 dollars, or less than 2% of the retail price. I imagine the rest of the money goes to the farmer, packhouse, supermarket, transportation, storage, and marketing. Think about it, the next time you buy kiwifruits at the supermarket.

Question 2: Can you make a living picking kiwifruit?

The answer is yes, but it's hard. Over a 2-week perioud, I made about 1,000 dolars. But after subtracting my expenses, I was left with only about 270 dollars:

Pay	1009
-Tax (see Note 1)	126
-Accommodation	300
-Food (see Note 2)	280
-Petrol	33
Savings	270

It's not a lot of money, but it's not bad either. Another problem with picking kiwifruit to earn money to travel, which many backpackers do, is the work schedule. I only get days off when it's raining, which makes it hard to see the local attractions.
        However, there is a perk to picking kiwifruit: I get to eat lots of delicious kiwifruit everyday. :-) (see Note 3)

Note 1: New Zealand tax rate is higher than Malaysia. Tax is 10.5% for income between NZD0-14,000. Hence if you make only 1 dollar, you still have to pay tax. In addition to income tax, you also have to pay 2% for accident and disability insurance (equivalent to SOCSO in Malaysia).

Note 2: My average daily food expense is 20 dollars. I usually order takeaways for dinner. If I cooked dinner I could have reduced the food expense, but I was usually too tired after a full day's work.

Note 3: All the kiwifruits we pick are half ripe. This is because they need to be stored for up 6 months for export. They're as hard as a rock, and don't taste good. However, occasionally we find one that's ripe and soft. We're supposed to throw it away, because putting the ripe fruit into the bin will cause all the other fruits to ripen and spoil. In practice, we simply ate it. As the fruit is ripe, it tastes delicious.

Kiwifruit picking - Part 2

Kiwifruit is a type of vine, similar to grape or tomato. The trellis (wooden structure that supports the vine) is built slightly over 6-ft high. This results in the fruits hanging at around eye level for a typical 1.70m person. Because of this, there is a height requirement for this job, which is between 1.60-1.80m. If you are too short, you will have trouble reaching the higher fruits. On the other hand, if you are too tall, you will not be able to stand up straight. You will have to bend your back or your neck, which is stressful over a long period of time. Fortunately, I am just the right height.

Me picking kiwifruit

Kiwifruit picking is very labour intensive work. Everything is done by hand, there are no machines involved. I am provided with a special bag, which is strapped over my shoulders and around my back. I simply reach up, twist the fruit off the vine, and drop it into the bag, while taking care not to damage the fruit. The bag can weigh between 20-30kg when full, so it's a physically demanding job.

Once the bag is full, I empty it into a "bin". This is a wooden box measuring approximately 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.75m. Once the bin is full, it is loaded onto a lorry. The lorry brings the fruits to a packhouse. The packhouse is a factory where the fruits are sorted, boxed, and stored until they are ready to be exported.

Kiwifruit pickers emptying their bags into a wooden bin

I work as part of a crew. The crew is a team of about 10-15 people. About 3-4 people are assigned to pick one row of fruits. We simply go through the row that we're assigned, picking every fruit that we see.

It is very hard work. We start at 8.30am, and work until 5.30pm. We get one 15-min break in the morning, 30-min lunch break at noon, and another 15-min break in the afternoon. Besides those 3 break times, we are constantly on our feet, and our arms never stop moving. There is a supervisor that watches over the crew. He or she would say: "Please pick faster!" (when we are tired and slow down), "No leaves or stalks please!" (when we have kiwifruit leaves or stalks mixed into our bags), "Try not to drop the fruit!" (when we accidentally drop a fruit onto the ground). We are constantly pressured to pick faster.

The work is also very dependent on weather. We only work when when the weather is good, we don't work when it's raining. This isn't because our employer is concerned about our health or well-being. The reason we don't work during rain is because the fruits will spoil if they're picked when wet. Because of this weather dependency, the cashflow from the work can be very inconsistent, as we only get paid if we work.

Some people at the hostel that I'm staying mentioned that they were without work for up to a week, because of rain. Fortunately for me, the weather was very good for the past 2 weeks. I had work for 11 days, out of 14, that I was here. In fact, the weather was too good. Because of the clear skies, I had to work 10 consecutive days without a single day off. At the end of the day, I was so tired that I went to bed right after dinner. I wanted to take a day off, but I didn't because of my teammates. Since I was one of the few people who had a car, my teammates from the hostel carpooled with me. If I don't go to work, they can't go. Some of them needed the money badly, so I continued to work for their sake.

So what kind of people are willing do this backbreaking, low-paid work? From my observation, about 50% are young backpackers with working holiday visa. I met backpackers from all over the world: Britons, Germans, Americans, French, Latvians, Japanese, Taiwanese, and of course Malaysians. The other 50% are poor immigrants and seasonal workers from Pacific Island nations such as Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Workers on my crew

This work reminds me of my grandfather. About 70 years ago, my grandfather migrated to Malaya (now Malaysia) from China. He had no money and no possessions. To make money, he worked in port Klang as a labourer, loading and unloading goods from ships. To save money, he lived in the warehouse with the other workers. Today, I am an immigrant to New Zealand, doing the same type of manual labour that my grandfather did 70 years ago. The main difference is, he did it out of necessity, while I'm doing it out of choice. Perhaps it is in the genes of my family to be nomadic, always migrating in search of a better life.

Kiwifruit picking - Part 1

New Zealand is one of the the largest kiwifruit producers in the world. Most of New Zealand's kiwifruit production is located around Te Puke (pronounced Teh-poo-keh), a small town about 30km from Mount Maunganui where I had been staying for the past 2 weeks. At this time of the year, from April to June, it is harvest season for kiwifruits. Te Puke produces about 80% of New Zealand's kiwifruits. I am currently picking kiwifruits at several orchards around Te Puke.

Kiwfruit capital of the world

Did you know that kiwifruit is not native to New Zealand? Despite its name, kiwifruit actually originates from Yangtze Valley in China. It is known as 猕猴桃, or "monkey peach" in Chinese, perhaps due to its hairy appearance. In the early 20th century, they were brought to New Zealand. New Zealand farmers adapted them to local conditions, and it was found that Te Puke, and the Bay of Plenty region, had the best weather and soil to grow kiwifruits.

New Zealand farmers grew and exported them all over the world. They branded the fruit as "kiwifruit", to give it New Zealand-sounding name. The branding is so successful that today, the name kiwifruit is associated with New Zealand. Even in China, it is now called 奇異果, or qí yì guǒ. (qí yì sounds like kiwi)

Unlike the olive farm that I was living at in Whakatane, most kiwifruit orchards are not organic. They are huge industrial enterprises. This is obvious from the shape of the fruits. Every single fruit is perfectly round, with no sign of worm or insect damage. It is clear that pesticides have been used. The orchards are also planted with only 1 species of kiwifruit, unlike the olive farm that had 4 varieties of olive trees.

Seemingly endless rows of monoculture kiwifruits

This kiwifruit monoculture makes them vulnerable to disease, because all the kiwifruits are genetically similar. Any disease that affects 1 tree will quickly spread to all other trees. Indeed, that was what happened this year. A bacteria called Psa V that originated from China infected many kiwifruit orchards in New Zealand. The trees that were infected had to be cut down, and some orchards suffered huge losses. Regardless, kiwfruit remains a billion-dollar industry for New Zealand.

An orchard that's been hit by Psa V