Good for the Planet, People and Profit
As the world goes back to the understanding that food is thy medicine, this pioneering family’s adventure sees them on the cusp of an exciting industry.
I had a lot of personal growth under a special walnut tree at my great-grandmother’s house on our family farm near Cromwell. It taught me manners (it’s not okay to throw walnuts at my sister), entrepreneurial spirit (our first roadside stall was selling walnuts) and respect (Dad and his ride-on lawnmower blades didn’t like me going around it). And on a warm summer’s Sunday in 2022, I found out something humbling about my heritage that lay under that special walnut tree – it was one of the oldest surviving walnut trees in New Zealand.
Whilst walnuts originated in Persia and are one of the oldest tree foods known to man, the Top 10 super-food spread to various parts of New Zealand only a century ago when settlers got a free walnut tree with every 10 fruit trees purchased. From one per cottage, it became a cottage industry in the late 1980s and was literally going nuts. Every lifestyle block property listing around Canterbury promoted the GST return you could shake out of the purchase with the viable nut tree opportunity.
A number of cottage industries from around the time I was born seem to be re-emerging in popularity today, as consumers are being re-connected with age-old knowledge around what is actually good for them. As such, the rise in walnuts has returned but this time with long-term profitability case studies that would make most dairy farmers rethink their retirement plans.
The Canterbury Plains in my lifetime has transformed and will transform again. We are coming to terms with an appreciation for the commodity market that has built this region’s wealth to date, but biodiversity values and consumer values will be what transforms it again, still rooted in commercially viable alternatives.
In 2002 Andrew and Jo Horsbrugh planted their first walnut trees on Tunlaw Farm, a 120-acre block near Rolleston. ‘It had previously been land acquired by the Norman Kirk Government to build his Rolleston town of the future,’ explains Jo. ‘Rolleston wasn’t built on our place, and the land was sold.
‘It has been a labour of love, but we have loved every minute of the past 25 years planting and tending to our trees,’ she continues. Standing proudly beside the tractor Andrew gifted her for their 20th wedding anniversary, this love and hard work is clearly evident. Alongside their 3,856 trees they have raised a young family of three and developed the land into a beautiful home and working farm.
Running the numbers, it is evident walnut trees are one of the few land uses that can make money from a two-hectare lifestyle block. ‘We have recently imported US variety Lara,’ explains Andrew, former Craigmore Sustainables CEO and former Farmlands director of Growth & Innovation, ‘which can produce 6–12 tonne/ha in California, in comparison to our current 2–4 tonne/ha. Pair that with a $5+/kg co-op price and we are on track to be a $30,000/ha revenue proposition. This is beyond cottage enterprise; we are at emerging industry stage,’ he explains.
‘The children grew up with the trees and we would always remind them that it is them that will benefit from the grove,’ explains Andrew. ‘It’s an inter-generational business case, but with the 10-metre spacings between trees it can be incorporated into a functional farming operation for cut and carry on a dairy farm or lucerne bales for the first 10-plus years until the canopy closure.’
The Horsbrugh children have now nearly all flown the coop and are skilled in every part of the operation from driving the AMB Rousset (France) harvesters, tree shakers and sorting/drying plant of which they are the New Zealand distributors. Every year it’s a family affair for six to eight weeks from mid-March to May where they only have one thing on their brain – walnuts.
Walnut groves have a long entry point to market as they have their first fruiting at six years old, with the first economic year at 12 years old, but they live to 65 years old. On average, each tree sequesters 30 kg of carbon from the atmosphere per year, giving them a carbon-positive brand attribute.
Tunlaw Farm is one of around 50 walnut growers across the South Island supplying West Melton’s Trickett’s Grove,a walnut grower co operative, who deliver the product to market. Products available include walnut oil, gluten-free walnut flour and dukka. And market research is underway into walnut milk, omega-3 capsules as well as the shells being used in sandblasting and cosmetic scrubs.
Canterbury already has a strong foundation to build this emerging industry from, with 50 per cent of the 570 hectares of walnuts grown in New Zealand right here in this region. Good for the planet, people and profit.
