{"id":76705,"date":"2025-10-13T23:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/76705\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T23:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:58:10","slug":"rockit-apple-grower-rakete-orchards-in-voluntary-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/76705\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockit apple grower R\u0101kete Orchards in voluntary administration"},"content":{"rendered":"\u201cThis fact, coupled with high supply chain costs, has meant orchard gate returns have been insufficient to support investment in next year\u2019s crop,\u201d Hawken said.<\/p>\n
MyFarm – an agriculturual land syndicator – said R\u0101kete is a lease syndicate with six orchards in Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n
The firm\u2019s website says Rakete\u2019s assets, worth $17.4m, cover a land area of 62.6 hectares.<\/p>\n
In statement, Rockit, which markets its apples in distinctive plastic tubes, acknowledged the challenges faced by R\u0101kete Orchards and its decision to appoint a voluntary administrator.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise the past few seasons have placed pressure on many Rockit growers, and we remain committed to supporting the grower community as we work to deliver our turnaround strategy,\u201d chief executive Grant McBeath said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRockit has taken proactive steps to improve orchard gate returns (OGR) and restore long-term value for all stakeholders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRockit\u2019s focus is getting demand ahead of supply and improving OGR by delivering the season, improving our supply chain and simplifying the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe acknowledge that grower outcomes in recent years have not aligned with expectations, and we need to own the components where we can improve; however, a major contributor to this has been factors outside our control including the historical impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, the more recent economic downturn in China, and the low-pressure fruit issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rockit was asked specifically by R\u0101kete Orchards for support but believed that prioritising the entire \u201cecosystem\u201d would be more beneficial for all growers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaced with the choice between investing that capital into initiatives that benefit all growers, or prioritising a single grower, Rockit made the difficult decision to focus on the broader grower network,\u201d McBeath said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we regret the situation Rakete finds itself in, our responsibility is to act in the best interests of all Rockit stakeholders,\u201d McBeath said.<\/p>\n
In a report published last month, Farmers Weekly said Rockit apples\u2019 problems echo those in the kiwifruit industry decades ago that prompted a near collapse of the sector as volumes surged and grower returns evaporated.<\/p>\n
\u201cRockit is repeating the same mistakes, chasing volume without controlling supply or securing sustainable consumer demand,\u201d Lincoln University agribusiness expert Nic Lees told Farmers Weekly.<\/p>\n
Lees challenged how Rockit managed to initially predict a $1.50-plus per tube payment to growers earlier in the year, only to revise it down to nearer 60c, well below break-even.<\/p>\n
Listen and subscribe to the Today in Business<\/a> podcast \u2013 the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an artificial intelligence (AI) voice as an easily digestible recap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis fact, coupled with high supply chain costs, has meant orchard gate returns have been insufficient to support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2438,351,29652,138,2219,19392,9978,78,296,330,59833,111,139,69,38473,4753,59832,59831,59834,7567,5977],"class_list":["post-76705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-administration","tag-apple","tag-apples","tag-business","tag-gone","tag-grower","tag-grows","tag-in","tag-into","tag-investments","tag-myfarm","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-orchards","tag-partnership","tag-rkete","tag-rockit","tag-trademarked","tag-voluntary","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76705","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=76705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}