Young Te Puke orchardist Joel Wanhill is the winner of this year's Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower of the Year Competition.

The 24-year-old, who works on a kiwifruit orchard in Te Puke, took out the title at the regional competition at Baypark on Wednesday after scoring top marks at least three of the six categories and picking up the supreme practical award.

Joel Wanhill with his trophy for Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower of the Year.

'I was pretty stoked and a bit surprised,” says Joel today.

'It was a good challenge, some of the tasks definitely got you thinking.”

Joel has worked on Ken and Helen Edkins 18hectare kiwifruit orchard in Te Puke for the last year while also studying horticulture at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

He began working on orchards during his school holidays and soon developed a passion for horticulture.

'I got into the industry about six years ago, originally it was a holiday job and enjoyed it, being outdoors.

'Last year I thought I would get things together and do some study and it has been great.”

This is the first time Joel has entered a horticultural competition, which tested each competitor's knowledge of horticulture, leadership skills and presentation in seven different activities.

'One of the toughest parts was the time management, there were so many different aspects to think about and it was a lot to take in.

Joel won best speech, got top marks in plant identification and fertiliser and won the supreme practical award.

Young Grower of the Year manager Michelle de Jong says the competition is a way of providing opportunities for young people in the industry.

'At a regional level the competitors really enjoy matching themselves against their peers.

'From a practical level there's more and more focus on management type issues like how to get resource consents or how one might deal with staffing issues.

'What we find is a number of previous contestants come back as judges. We want them to start getting involved in leadership roles, or they may pursue higher education.”

Adam Bond of Canon Road Ltd Kiwifruit took out second place and Tim Webb from the Te Puke Family Orchard placed third.

The competition started in 2007 and continues to be well supported by the industry and employers.

Competitors must be under 30-years-old with current competitors ranging in age from 23 to 27-years-old.

Joel now goes on to compete in the Young Grower of the Year in Auckland and Young Fruit Grower of the Year on July 23 and 24.

'I am feeling a bit nervous, to go through it all again but on a national level.”