Commercial Apricot Picking Roxburgh Central Otago NZ
Photo & Vacation Spot

A commercial fruit picking machine is used to reap all the ripe apricots from the trees in an orchard near Roxburgh in Central Otago, NZ.

In an orchard near Roxburgh in Central Otago, NZ, the trees are loaded with ripe apricots and the commercial fruit pickers use a special machine to aid in the picking. A bucket is used for the picker to stand on in order to reach the apricots and then emptied into this green bag before being placed in the wooden crate.

Once the crates are filled with freshly picked apricots, they are then shipped out to different locations for sale. Central Otago, NZ is one of the major apricot producing areas with a yearly crop of about 6.6 thousand tonnes coming out of the entire region.

Care must be taken when picking and emptying the apricots to avoid any bruising which in turn lowers the total cost of their crop. Each apricot is still picked by hand but the machine helps to reach the tops of the trees and allows one to get into the center.

Commerical picker preparing to unload fresh picked apricots into a container in an orchard near Roxburgh, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand.