Like his grandfather, Blair couldn\u2019t agree more about change being the only constant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in this [kiwifruit] industry 11 years and we haven\u2019t had one season the same,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe kiwifruit industry is heavily dependent on the growing environment and weather. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are not constantly adapting to change, you\u2019re going backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s success in kiwifruit had an unplanned but fortuitous start.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s father, George, was dairy farming in Pukekohe and wanted to expand the farm but \u201ccouldn\u2019t do anything for mud\u201d, Mavis said. <\/p>\n
In 1960, he bought a farm in Tauranga and moved the family south.<\/p>\n
What he didn\u2019t know then, while milking a herd of 200 cows on the 120ha property on Ruahihi Rd, was that the free-draining soil of the region made it perfect to grow kiwifruit.<\/p>\n
A fruit that would, in time, shape the family\u2019s fortunes.<\/p>\n
Graham and Mavis eventually took over the farm, but two decades later they started looking for a new challenge. <\/p>\n
\u201cDairy farms are for young people,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t quite ready to give up dairy farming, feeling a loyalty to their quality stud stock, so they started selling kiwifruit plants and shelter belt trees from a small nursery alongside the dairy.<\/p>\n
During the nursery work, they recognised the characteristics of the land were better than Te Puke, which at that time in the early 1980s was becoming known as the kiwifruit capital of the world. <\/p>\n
They decided to embrace their true ethos as plant people. <\/p>\n
The couple sold the dairy stud to their son Steve and planted a kiwifruit orchard.<\/p>\n
Steve Atkinson (left) and Blair Dyer were named Regional Supreme Winners at the 2025 Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards. Photo \/ Alan Gibson<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a plant person, so actually it was an easy transition; a lot of work planting them out, but an easy sector to move into,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n
As well as the kiwifruit, Graham and Mavis planted avocado trees. <\/p>\n
A decade later, when the trees didn\u2019t grow because of wet conditions, they were removed and mulched, to be replaced by 2000 Ginkgo biloba trees across 2ha. <\/p>\n
It was the largest ginkgo nut orchard in the southern hemisphere and marked the start of a 20-year project, travelling to China, working with scientists, experimenting with skincare ranges and processing ginkgo nuts, of which they still have a freezer full.<\/p>\n
However, once they reluctantly accepted that ginkgo nuts weren\u2019t being accepted by the market, Graham and Mavis sent the ginkgo trees to join the avos as mulch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are afraid of failure, you will never find success,\u201d Graham said, happy to take the risks but ever the pragmatist.<\/p>\n
\u201cGraham has always been the innovator in the family,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t ever driven by money or success, but by the need to innovate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage of my career and in a very competitive industry where the financial success of the business remains at the forefront, my risks need to be a bit more calculated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retired Tauranga orchardist Graham Dyer and his wife Mavis were named the Regional Supreme Winner in the 2011 Bay of Plenty Ballance Farm Environment Awards. Photo \/ Alan Gibson<\/p>\n
While Blair grew up on a dairy farm in the Waikato, his family connections to the kiwifruit industry remained strong.<\/p>\n
This made it almost inevitable that after completing his business and management degrees at Massey University he would become involved in the business.<\/p>\n
Blair runs a management consultancy and farms a small kiwifruit orchard with his wife. <\/p>\n
There have been some big changes in the industry compared to when his grandparents farmed. <\/p>\n
These changes have resulted in huge increases in how much orchardists can grow per hectare. <\/p>\n
In 1981, New\u202fZealand exported approximately 22,000\u202ftonnes of kiwifruit, while in 2022 production reached about 603,500\u202ftonnes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chemicals we are using are more advanced and safer,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are constantly measuring and collecting data points on how much food and water the plants need. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe packing is very digitised and largely robotic now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam Dyer (left), Colin Dyer, Gavin Dyer, Mavis Dyer, Graham Dyer, Tom Dyer, Blair Dyer and Matthew Dyer, pictured at the family’s original kiwifruit orchard at Ruahihi, near Tauranga. Photo \/ Alan Gibson<\/p>\n
He said taking risks like his grandfather did wasn\u2019t quite as vital to success now as being able to pivot quickly. <\/p>\n
Through cross-breeding, scientists constantly work on new varieties that are distributed to orchards via Zespri, the world\u2019s largest grower-owned marketer of kiwifruit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be nimble as new varieties come on to the market,\u201d Blair said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGold kiwifruit in particular has returns that are unrivalled on a per-hectare level.\u201d <\/p>\n
So, while he\u2019s focused on keeping current, he admitted to some wistful moments. <\/p>\n
\u201cI do look forward to a time when I have the freedom to trial new things, much like Graham.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blair acknowledged that, with Graham and Mavis as pioneers of the Tauranga orchards, and his uncle Gavin an innovator in the Gold kiwifruit space, he wore the Dyer name as a badge of honour. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has a lot of history in the industry, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it was never a given that Graham and Mavis\u2019 three sons, Steve, Colin and Gavin, would become involved in kiwifruit production.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, we were careful to acknowledge their individual interests,\u201d Graham said, \u201cbut what\u2019s happened is the opposite; they\u2019ve come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Steve is still dairy farming in the Waikato, he said the innovative skills and attitude his father and brothers brought to the industry led him and his wife, Lynette, to become early investors with Gavin and his wife, Linda, in the Gold Nugget orchards. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so grateful to watch Blair being mentored as the next generation and see this knowledge being shared,\u201d Steve said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really proud of his achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sentiment Mavis shared. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not how great our orchard was or how magnificently we farmed,\u201d Mavis said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur children are all very successful in their own way, and that to me is success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blair echoed a similar sentiment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI do say our children will need to succeed and fail at whatever they are passionate about.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t be sheltered by the success of your family because that won\u2019t help you against the harsh realities of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
And with kiwifruit still New Zealand\u2019s single most valuable fruit export and expected to exceed $5\u202fbillion export revenue for the first time in 2025, does Graham hope that Blair\u2019s children, his great-grandchildren, will one day embrace a kiwifruit future?<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hope so, but my wish would be that they do what they want to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Supplied by the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like his grandfather, Blair couldn\u2019t agree more about change being the only constant. \u201cI\u2019ve been in this [kiwifruit]…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,48763,1561,12974,93307,52606,93306,2109,14934,5071,26348,78,2203,23553,4754,111,43,139,69,1118,1562,418,4525,3502,1227,1529,93305],"class_list":["post-136664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-agree","tag-bay","tag-change","tag-constant","tag-drives","tag-dyer","tag-family","tag-farming","tag-feature","tag-generations","tag-in","tag-journey","tag-kiwifruit","tag-members","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-plenty","tag-shows","tag-something","tag-success","tag-tauranga","tag-three","tag-threegeneration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}