For the second time in two seasons, Owen St George's kiwifruit orchard in Te Puna has posted a top orchard gate return for its green variety with post-harvest company DMS.

Despite producing less fruit than the previous season, the orchard saw an increased OGR of $99,000 based on 11,760 trays per hectare thanks to an outstanding $3.37 per tray Kiwistart pay-out.

Owen and Gilda St George of Te Puna have won the DMS award for top green orchard for 2015. Photo: Supplied.

Last year's 15,109 trays per hectare produced an OGR of $90,000, having been stored throughout the season.

Owen says the two consecutive results – albeit on opposite sides of the scale – are all about income consistency.

'It's all about being consistent with what you're doing and producing good results every year,” he says.

The 2014 season's result came down to a smaller crop which still produced size 31 fruit, with high dry matter and taste despite early picking.

'In the 2013 season we had a huge crop and picked late in May,” explains Owen. 'Last season it was completely different and we picked incredibly early. There's two ways to skin a cat and that's exactly what happened.

'There's always huge potential if you can time it right with Kiwistart and that's what we did – we hit ISO week 13. It was luck. Of course it also helped that we had big fruit, a low reject rate and very good taste which saw us in the Y-band.”

Luck was also on the orchard's side earlier in the season, when there were initial issues with the bud burst spray Hi-Cane. The day it was applied was not ideal, but Owen says in hindsight it was 'the best thing that could have happened”.

The orchard is managed by Matt Greenbank of DMS and Owen says that having a good manager is a key ingredient.

'Matt knows exactly what to do and when to do it,” he says. 'The two most important things are pollination and winter pruning, so we always focus heavily on them. Making sure the fruit has enough light is another key.”

Owen believes the green variety will remain the backbone of the industry going forward - particularly after Zespri's next two-to-three year forecast of solid returns.

'Green is such a good fruit and is popular around the world,” explains Owen. 'It's the backbone of the industry and always will be.”

Owen purchased the orchard, which includes 2.66 hectares of green and 1.3 hectares of converted Gold 3, around 10 years ago after 34 years of farming.

It has been through some significant changes since then, including grafting new chieftain males around six years ago. Every second row is now male.

'We are now seeing the benefits of that hard work paying off,” he adds.