GEN kiwifruit credit Rob Qld

New Zealand farm investment company MyFarm has announced it is looking to purchase a second kiwifruit orchard to diversify its portfolio, reports NZ Farmer.

MyFarm has sold six of its 41 dairy farm operations and is seeking investment in sheep, beef and horticulture.

​'We chose kiwifruit because they have just been through the PSA disease and come strongly out of it.There is a single seller and strong plant developmentand research,” MyFarm executivedirector Andrew Watters told the news site.

Watters said the focus would be on green kiwifruit, with the potential for a 6-8 per cent return on investment on orchards producing 12-14,000 trays a hectare.

'The cost of production is about 50 per cent in kiwifruit and that is where we were with dairying in the 1990s, but somehow when theprice went up, we boughtin more food and we have only ended up with a margin of 20-30 percent. and nothing this year,” Watters said.