Horticulture New Zealand honours industry pioneer

Horticulture New Zealand
News Release
2 August 2007

Horticulture New Zealand honours industry pioneer

Acclaimed Taranaki grower Russell Jordan was honoured last night for his outstanding contribution to New Zealand horticulture.

In front of a 500-strong crowd at the annual Horticulture New Zealand conference, President Andrew Fenton presented Mr Jordan with the Bledisloe Cup in recognition of more than 20 years’ work in the horticulture sector.

A passionate advocate for the fresh vegetable industry, Mr Jordan recently retired as Chairman of HortNZ’s fresh vegetable product group, a position he has held for the past decade.

Over the past 20 years, Mr Jordan has been an influential figure in the sector chairing the Vegetable Research Council, representing New Zealand on the trans-Tasman Vital Vegetable® programme and having significant input into the recently announced $37m Future Vegetable research and development project.

He has pioneered developments in the vegetable sector including the creation of New Zealand GAP, a quality assurance scheme which has allowed the sector to self regulate. The programme has become one of the largest in New Zeland, providing assurance to consumers that their fresh fruit and vegetables are safe to eat and of a high quality. The initiative has been benchmarked internationally against programmes such as EUREPGAP.

“The horticulture sector has much to thank Mr Jordan for: his vision and tenacity saw the development of a unified quality assurance programme bringing together the vegetable and fruit industries to improve production methods and product quality. We are now world leaders in quality assurance,” says Andrew Fenton, President of HortNZ.

Mr Jordan, who is now focusing his attention wholly on his budding herbs business, said he was humbled by the award.

“This is a huge honour. It’s not often you get awarded for doing the work you truly love. New Zealand’s horticulture sector has gone from strength to strength and will continue to do so. We have new challenges ahead – including recruitment of talented young horticulturists – but I’m sure we will overcome these,” says Mr Jordan.

Mr Jordan’s advice for the horticulture sector is to continue to work together. “The industry needs to work together, meet customer expectations, produce high value niche products for the high end of the market and continue to consistently deliver to a standard that is beyond expectation.”

“I’m still going to keep a keen eye on the industry – although now from the vantage point of an industry player. I’m looking forward to spending more time focusing on my own herbs business.”

Ends

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