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Story: Apples and pears

Apple and Pear Marketing Board

Between 1948 and 2001 apple and pear growers banded together with the New Zealand government to form an agency – the Apple and Pear Marketing Board – that acquired, exported and marketed New Zealand pipfruit. This film clip from the 1960s discusses the reasons the board was set up. Since 2001 individual growers have been able to export and market their own fruit.

Using this item

Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: Case History. National Film Unit, 1966

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

John Palmer, Apples and pears – Marketing and distribution, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/17269/apple-and-pear-marketing-board (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by John Palmer, published 1 March 2009.

Comments

Adrian Asas
21 June 2012
Hi! I want to experience to work to New Zealand as Apple picker or fruit picker. Do you know what the employment agencies or websites need to know the step by step processing applying for holiday worker NZ visa. I am from Manila, Philippines and I really love to experience to work temporary to NZ as apple picker? Thank you very much.
Carolyn Adams
14 March 2011
I love a fresh new apple and realise that this expectation is not always possible given that apples are a seasonal product. I stop buying apples in November and do not start again until the new season’s apples become available. I them buy them steadily for the rest of the year. But this year I can’t find a new season’s apples for the life of me. I purchased my first apples 3 weeks ago at a roadside stall just south of Levin – the apples were labelled "new seasons" but were clearly not – they were disgusting and obviously over a year old. This morning I attempted to buy new season’s apples at the New World in Whitby, Porirua. None were labelled "new season’s" so I asked – would you believe it they admitted that none of the apples they had on display (4 or 5 varieties) were in fact new season’s. Can I offer a word of advice: A crisp new season’s apple in March is one of life’s great joys – you have the perfect product there. Can you do anything to encourage retailers to sell them, market them and make a big thing of them. This would increase sales and enhance your reputation. There must be a better way than continuing to sell old stock instead of new at the start of the season – that’s absolute rubbish and distracts from your reputation.