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Jeffrey Benfell went from travel agent to human resources for the Bay of Plenty kiwi industry during the shutdown.
When Jeffrey Benfell was laid off after 20 years in the travel industry just as Covid-19 hit, he wasted no time looking for his next opportunity.
Benfell called a friend who later introduced him to a contact at Apata, a Bay of Plenty kiwi postharvest operator.
He was hired as a human resources assistant and began work on March 23, just as the country entered alert level 3.
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“The kiwi industry has always been one of the mainstays of the Bay of Plenty area. I knew there would be at least seasonal work at a packing house, and I was lucky it turned out to be more than seasonal. “
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The primary sector has continued to offer employment throughout the Covid crisis, where others were closing doors.
Benfell got his start in the travel industry in London, where he met his Czech wife, Jana. Eventually the couple and their two children, Nicholas and Amy, returned to New Zealand and settled in Tauranga in 2007.
Working in travel, he kept an eye on news reports, and as Covid-19 started to affect more and more countries, he knew it would only be a matter of time before New Zealand was affected.
“I remember when the stories started showing up in late October 2019, and I thought this was going to be a lot worse than many people think,” he said.
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Kiwifruit is the largest fresh horticultural export worth $ 2.3 billion to the New Zealand economy last year.
But Benfell had already been in the process of looking for a new job, and the career change wasn’t as daunting as it could have been.
The first days at Apata were “pretty chaotic,” spent planning how the company would implement social distancing requirements.
His new role covers the entire human resources domain, from recruitment to support. Now Benfell is in a position to help others who lost their jobs as a result of Covid-19.
“If someone needs a job or has difficulties, we can take care of them. There were some people during the lockdown period who really needed to get into the kiwi industry. [to support themselves], and we were able to receive them with open arms ”.
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Apata specializes in kiwis and avocados, and because it has both crops, it could keep people employed for 10 months a year at the packinghouse, he said.
The strength of the New Zealand horticultural industry meant that there was long-term certainty for people who accepted jobs in the sector.
Apata had operations in both Katikati and Te Puke, and was one of the largest fully integrated postharvest operators in the industry, providing growers with their packing, cold storage and shipping facilities.
“Almost anyone can work on kiwis in some way. For stackers, it is quite a physically demanding job. For the qualifiers, it is mentally focused. And for the preparation of trays and packers, it takes a lot of skill, thought and speed, ”he said.
Kiwifruit is the largest fresh horticultural export, worth $ 2.3 billion to the New Zealand economy last year and growers sold 164 million trays of kiwi in more than 50 markets.
