A substantial, fully integrated apple and pear orchard operation within an hour’s drive of Wellington Port is for sale by tender through Bayleys.

JR’s Orchards covers just under 128ha in 14 titles on excellent soils near the Wairarapa township of Greytown and has been developed into a self-sufficient operation with production and modern post-harvest facilities by the current owners who bought it in 2003.

Vendors John (JR) van Vliet and Jamiee Burns have transformed the original orchard into a modern operation, adding a packhouse which features a two-lane Compac grader and cool storage with Smartfresh technology plus infrastructure for loading containers on-site for shipping out of Wellington Port.

An on-site accommodation village with several houses and shared facilities provides housing for up to 80 Recognised Seasonal Employees who help pick and pack each year’s crop. A recently renovated manager’s house and another modern, large home completes the housing.

About 85 hectares of the apple area has been covered with netting, providing high levels of protection from hail, frosts, wind, birds, and also reducing the risk posed by some pests and diseases. Irrigation consents are in place to ensure a reliable crop, regardless of rainfall.

Bayleys salesperson Andrew Smith says JR’s Orchards is a unique opportunity to purchase a vertically integrated ‘tree-to-customer’ operation with full management over the entire business and potential for further growth.

“The owners have developed their own systems, brands and markets to maximise their unique location as the only significant horticultural business in this district,” he says.

“This has included launching their own independent brands, ECCO and Capital Apples, to provide direct access to export retail markets.”

The business is on track to produce about 175,000 cartons from its 2025 harvest for export through its two brands, ECCO developed in 2012 and Capital Apples founded in 2018. Both are respected export brands, built largely on Burns’ regular attendance at food trade shows in key markets.

Demand from Asia for JR’s Orchards fruit is growing strongly, but traditional markets in the United Kingdom and Europe still dominate export sales which totalled more than $5 million in 2024 when 40 percent of the apple crop went to the United Kingdom, 20 percent to India, 30 percent to Europe, nine percent to Asia and one percent to the Pacific Islands.

The planted area has just under 57,000 trees. Most are apple varieties, comprising Braeburn, Fuji, Royal Gala, Galaxy, Sunglow Red, Pacific Rose, Granny Smith and Lady in Red. A smaller area of pear trees includes Taylors Gold, Beurre Bosc and Packham Triumph varieties.

Smith says there is potential for growth in fruit production by planting more of the remaining 16-17ha of unplanted area, currently in permanent pasture, and adding netting to more of the uncovered area already in trees.

The vendors are also evaluating the installation of solar panels to run the packhouse equipment.

An exciting and unique feature included with the sale of the orchard operation is a new apple variety which is expected to be available in commercial volumes by the 2026 harvest.

It was originally spotted by JR in 2021 as two apples growing on a tiny branch on a Royal Gala tree planted in 1989, and he instantly saw its potential to establish a new, high-colour variety which will be popular in both Asian and European export markets where consumers like apples with strong red colour, crisp texture and sweet taste.

Its harvest date is slightly earlier than Royal Gala, providing the chance to enter Southern Hemisphere markets slightly earlier.

Burns looks after export sales in her operations director role and says the potential for this new variety is massive.

“We’ve now got close to 3,000 trees growing this new variety and everybody now wants it,” she says.

“It suits the Asian palette really well, it’s sweet and has that lovely red colour which also appeals to our European and United Kingdom customers too. It also stores well too.”

Smith expects the business to appeal to existing large-scale individual growers and corporate-owned businesses seeking to expand their area of crop to capitalise on the positive outlook for apple sales in existing and developing export markets.

Its unique location, self-sufficiency and scale also offers large growers in other fruit growing districts a great way to balance out the risk of isolated weather challenges, disease or pest incursions hitting production at their existing sites.

The closing time and date for tenders for JR’s Orchards is 2pm on May 15, 2025, unless the operation is sold before.

For more information, contact either Andrew Smith on 027 760 8208 and email a.smith@bayleys.co.nz, or Lindsay Watts on 027 246 2542 and email lindsay.watts@bayleys.co.nz.