Twenty-eight emerging leaders from across the horticulture sector spent two days last week learning valuable skills and connecting with industry experts at the inaugural edition of Rabobank’s HortPathways programme in Papamoa.

Across the day and a half, participants heard from speakers covering a range of topics including communication skills, succession, people management, personality profiling and governance.

The programme, a spin-off of Rabobank’s AgPathways programme, was sponsored by the Rabo Community Fund with no cost for participants.

The idea for the horticulture specific event came from members of Rabobank’s Upper North Island Client Council.

One of those client council members, Te Puke-based kiwifruit grower Brigid Crawford, said the event had been an “amazing couple of days”.

“Close to 30 emerging leaders from across the horticulture sector attended the programme and we were rapt with how this inaugural event went,” she said.

“We covered a whole host of topics, and we had some great speakers come in.”

Crawford said the programme also included a “war stories” segment, which featured two local farmers discussing their experiences in the agricultural sector.

“The first was a dairy farmer who talked about some of the challenges he’s faced including weather events and seasons with low milk price payouts,” she said.

“The second was a young kiwifruit orchardist who bought his first orchard at 29 years of age. He covered some of the adversity he faced to get to that point, and his story was really inspiring.”

Crawford said the initial feedback from participants had been excellent.

“One participant said he had gained something from every session, and it was hard to identify his favourite session as they were all so good,” she said.

“Hopefully, participants went away fully inspired and ready to take our industry forward into the future.”

Crawford said at the end of the programme, participants had been challenged to set goals and to start to think about their future pathway in the horticulture industry.

“With so much positive feedback, we do see this programme running again in the future,” she said.

HortPathways attendee William Kenna said the programme was a great opportunity for personal development.

“It was good to get off-orchard and out of business and to focus on myself a little bit,” he said.

“You always need to keep growing and upskilling and HortPathways provided a fantastic opportunity to do this.”

Kenna, who works for Katikati-based orchard and innovation business KW Kiwi, said HortPathways was ‘well organised’ and covered a ‘multitude of different aspects of the horticultural industry’.

“I really enjoyed the session covering personality testing and goal setting. It was eye opening to learn about the different personality types and how to interact and communicate with different types of people, and this has honed a few areas that I think I need to work on,” he said.

“The session on governance was also really valuable, as was the session on succession – especially given KW Kiwi are a family-owned business.

“As the industry grows, it is always important to look back at where we’ve come from and some of the challenges we’ve faced, and it was fantastic to have so many great speakers provide us with their insights and guidance on future pathways in the sector.”

Kenna – the current Bay of Plenty Young Grower of the Year – said he already knew many of the HortPathways participants through his involvement with New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated.

“But it was really good to have a different environment to connect with other horticulture sector participants and to learn,” he said.

“I met several new people, not just kiwifruit growers, but boysenberry and vegetable growers as well.”

“I’d definitely recommend HortPathways to any sector participants who want to meet new people and continue their learning.”