Why horticulture needs a different cash plan
In most businesses, the gap between spending money and earning it is weeks. In horticulture it can be a year or more. You prune, feed, spray, pollinate, thin and manage the canopy long before a single tray is picked — and then the return arrives in stages.
Understanding that calendar precisely is the difference between a stressed season and a planned one.
The kiwifruit year
The table below shows a typical Bay of Plenty kiwifruit year. Timings vary by variety, region and season.
| Months | Orchard work | Cash out | Cash in |
|---|---|---|---|
| June–August | Winter pruning, maintenance | Heavy (labour) | Submit and early progress payments from the last harvest |
| September–October | Budbreak, spraying, fertiliser | Moderate | Progress, taste and time payments continue |
| November–December | Flowering, pollination, thinning | Heavy (hives, labour) | Late-season payments, winding down |
| December–February | Summer pruning, canopy work, girdling | Heavy (labour) | Low; loyalty payment in January |
| March–May | Harvest | Moderate (picking often via packhouse) | Submit payments start weekly |
| May–June | Post-harvest clean-up | Light | Submit payments, progress payments begin |
How the payments are staged
Zespri’s grower payments information for the 2026 season describes:
- Harvest running from mid-March to early May for the KiwiStart programme.
- Submit payments paid weekly as fruit is submitted, until the end of June.
- Progress payments starting in June (earlier than in previous seasons) and continuing monthly.
- KiwiStart premium payments: half by mid-August and the rest by mid-October.
- Taste payments from July, ramping up through September as shipments increase.
- Time and pack payments monthly.
- Loyalty payments in two instalments in the following January and June.
It’s a well-designed system that returns cash as fruit is sold. But for an individual orchard, it still means the costs of the season are paid long before the season’s full return is in.
Other crops, other calendars
Apples and pears
Harvest runs roughly February to May in Hawke’s Bay and Nelson. Packhouse and exporter payment schedules vary, often with an advance followed by later payments as fruit is sold.
Avocados
Harvest in Northland and the Bay of Plenty often runs from late winter through summer, depending on the market. Cash can be uneven from year to year because of alternate bearing.
Cherries and summerfruit
Central Otago cherries are picked over a short summer window, typically December and January. Heavy labour and packing costs are concentrated into a few weeks.
Grapes and wine
Vintage runs in March and April. Grape payments from wineries are often spread across several instalments. In 2025, oversupply left some growers without contracts heading into the 2026 vintage — which makes cash planning even more important.
Where the pressure points are
For most growers, the tightest times are:
- Late winter, when pruning labour is paid and the previous season’s early payments have been spent.
- Early summer, when pollination, thinning and canopy work are all happening at once.
- Tax dates, especially provisional tax instalments that fall before the season’s returns are complete. See provisional tax for seasonal businesses.
- Capital purchases — frost fans, netting, platforms — that need to happen before the season they protect.
Planning tips for growers
- Build your forecast around the payment calendar, not harvest dates.
- Use your packhouse or post-harvest provider’s forecasts for payment timing and per-tray estimates, and update them as the season progresses.
- Stress-test a lower return. What if the orchard gate return comes in lower than forecast?
- Separate capital from operating costs. Fund a frost fan differently from pruning labour.
- Arrange funding in the months when your bank statements show strong receipts.
Building a grower’s cash flow forecast
A practical horticulture forecast has three layers:
- Orchard operating costs month by month — labour, inputs, contractors, repairs — based on your orchard records and your manager’s plan for the season.
- Expected payments month by month, using your post-harvest provider’s or marketer’s payment schedule and the latest per-tray or per-kilogram forecasts.
- Capital and tax items — equipment, development work, provisional tax instalments and GST.
Update the payments layer each time forecasts change. Returns forecasts move through the season as fruit is sold, and a forecast that isn’t updated will drift away from reality.
Contractors carry a bigger gap
Orchard contractors pay crews weekly and invoice growers monthly, then wait for payment. A contractor with several crews through harvest can be carrying weeks of wages. A revolving facility that refills as growers pay is often the cleanest answer.
How funding fits
- A business line of credit suits the recurring seasonal gap for businesses usually trading six months or more.
- A property-secured loan of $20,000 to $1m, secured on orchard land, a home or other New Zealand property you or a supporting party own, suits capital items or larger working capital needs.
Our horticulture and agribusiness funding page explains how we help growers, vineyards and contractors — for business purposes only.