Family tradition behind orchard success

As part of the wave of Dutch migrants who headed to New Zealand in the mid-twentieth century, Jacob and Maria Geuze established a growing legacy that continues to this day. KRISTINE WALSH reports.

As well as managing her mother Henny Geuze's (right) Riverton Orchard, Anita Willock (pictured left with son Reggie) looks after her brother William's kiwifruit next door while another brother, Mark, manages his own kiwifruit plots just over the road

After the famine of post-World War II, getting into farming was almost impossible in The Netherlands. Dykes built over centuries to protect cropping had been destroyed in the war and any workable land was tightly held.

For young mechanic Jacob Geuze that dream crept even further away after the North Sea flood of 1953 struck The Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland at the cost of tens of thousands of animals and 1835 human lives.

In Jacob's home province of Zeeland, in the west, dykes were breached in nearly 70 locations and nine percent of the country's farmland was under water.

So, in 1956, Jacob and his wife Maria did what half a million of their countrymen and women did: they left The Netherlands to join the wave of nearly 24,000 Dutch migrants who chose New Zealand as their home in the period 1951 to 1968 alone.

Having chosen horticulture as their profession, the couple became part of another wave. Dutch agricultural migrants who, according to academic Henri van Roon's 1971 PhD thesis, brought a culture of frugality, hard work and determination to succeed.

“That's just what they were like… they fit just about every Dutch stereotype you can think of,” laughs Anita Willock of her Opa and Oma, Jacob and Maria.

It is because of that foundation that Anita has been able to join her mother, Henny Geuze, in running Riverton Orchard, adjacent to Jacob and Maria's original property just ten kilometres inland from Gisborne.

While Henny remains the owner – and a relentless worker – 31-year-old Anita is on board as the new generation; an orchard manager, running five hectares of kiwifruit, avocados and citrus.

How she got there was a winding journey, starting with local landowner Peter Grey, who, at the time of Jacob and Maria's arrival in Gisborne, held property stretching from the main road out of Gisborne, down to the Waipaoa River.

A grandson of 1920s avocado pioneer Charles Grey, Peter first sold the young couple a five-hectare plot, complete with house, on which they grew canning tomatoes that were so in demand in Gisborne at the time.

By the 1970s, they were keen to get involved in more permanent cropping and with Peter agreeing to lease them more land, Maria and Jacob set to work planting oranges, grapefruit, tangelos and in the 1980s, kiwifruit.

All the while their young family of seven was growing and in 1986, their son Andrew met a 25-year-old Dutch bookkeeper, Henny, who was in New Zealand visiting family.

The couple were soon married and in 1990 were able to buy half a hectare of land – along with the home Peter Grey lived in before moving to a new build – and take over the lease on five hectares Jacob had already planted.

When Peter died in 1997, Henny and Andrew were able to purchase that leased land, creating what is Riverton Orchard today.

Anita and her three brothers well remember how hard their parents worked, and how the teen siblings tried to get out of putting in their own labour.

“We'd get off the school bus and sneak inside in the hope of getting out of going into the orchard,” Anita laughs. “But they'd always come and find us and set us to work.”

All four siblings inherited that strong work ethic.

As well as having Anita to run Riverton, Henny's youngest son William bought Maria and Jacob's original property after their deaths in 2015 and 2019 (respectively).

Meanwhile, middle son Mark is a kiwifruit contractor who has his own blocks just across the road.

And though he is based in Wellington, the eldest son, Stephen, an architect, helped out by designing the renovation to Henny's 1940s home.

While they all help each other out, Anita – a trained teacher – and her husband Daniel returned from overseas so she could step up into a role at Riverton.

“We arrived just before the first lockdown in 2019, but were already on our way as mum wanted a bit more help and Mark's team, who were working the orchard at the time, were skilled in kiwifruit but not so much in everything else,” Anita says. “Plus, we really wanted to have a family and working on the orchard means my baby son Reggie (one year old) can be with me or mum for most, if not all, of the day.”

As well as running Riverton, Anita manages William's kiwifruit across the driveway – along with Opa and Oma's remaining lemons, oranges, mandarins and tangelos.

Between Anita, Henny and their eight staff, the business operates almost year-round, the workers taking care of things while Henny and Anita have a break over January and February.

Having a diversity of produce means that, with just a few contractors brought in at peak times, the staff can be on the job year-round, which gives them great job security.

“Some of the younger ones didn't think they would last but have found they absolutely love the work, have been able to develop their careers and have stuck with us,” Anita says. “Because of that we didn't really have the shortfalls many growers saw over the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The Geuze family have certainly had their trials, among them the kiwifruit bust of the late 1980s and losing their original avocado trees after 1988's devastating Cyclone Bola.

But having solid supply chains has kept Riverton on a steady course.

Today, the kiwifruit and Meyer lemons go straight to a major packhouse, while the smaller on-site packhouse and washing facility are used to handle the grapefrut, limes, mandarins, oranges and the few remaining tangelos.

Of that, some goes to a local direct-to-market fruit company. During the peak of the pandemic they sold the fruit online; and Henny retains the rest to take to the Gisborne Farmers’ Market, where she has been a regular for more than 15 years.

As well as her passion for working outdoors, Henny says that weekly outing is what she loves most about orcharding.

“That is really the main reason I do it… you have that connection with the land, then you have this wonderful connection to the people,” she says. “Those people love to buy local, they love the taste of the produce they are getting and they really enjoy talking direct to the grower. That's what keeps us going.”

Originally published in February 2023 issue of the Orchardist magazine.