Cromwell’s Lydia Goodman has won the Central Otago Young Grower of the year title.

Lydia is the assistant orchard manager at Central Orchard Management and packing manager at CentralPac, and has dreams of becoming a Central Otago cherry grower.

She pitched her skills against four fellow contestants to take the title at Cromwell on May 16.

She will now compete against six other regional winners in the Young Grower of the Year final in Christchurch in September.

Lydia, 26, was raised on a beef and dairy farm in England and developed a passion for agriculture early.

After moving to New Zealand, she transitioned from cattle and crops to cherries, discovering a love for horticulture.

“I literally fell into it when I was a backpacker in Wānaka. My working visa was about to expire, it was post-Covid and the industry was crying out for workers.”

Lydia snapped up the government’s offer of Supplementary Seasonal Employer (SSE) visas and started work in a cherry orchard in Tarras.

“I just loved it, the outdoors work and the passion and leadership in the industry. I have been here ever since.”

Lydia has five years of experience managing teams in both orchard and packhouse operations and holds level three and four certificates in fruit production.

She entered the Young Grower competition to develop her technical skills, build connections with like-minded professionals, and challenge herself.

“It was a great experience completing seven modules across the day, along with two practical components, and a speech in the evening. The big one for me was pruning a tree in front of two big names in the field.”

Lydia, who manages a team of 12 RSE workers as well as being a manager in the pack house, says she loves outdoor work and the passion and leadership in the industry.

“One of the best things is teaching the team how to do their job, and seeing the passion develop as they learn and understand things like the physiology of a tree. That really fuels me.”

Runners up were Jared Loewen from Roxburgh, who is currently redeveloping his family’s orchard, Stone House Gardens, to improve productivity and sustainability; and Mackenzie Maaka from Cromwell who is currently studying level four horticultural fruit production at polytechnic.

The competition celebrates the success of young people in the industry as well as encouraging others to consider a career in horticulture.

Regional organisers host and run the regional competitions independently, with Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) hosting the final in a different part of the country each year.

Entry is open to both commercial fruit and vegetable growers from across the regions, up to the age of 30.

HortNZ chief executive Kate Scott said the competitions play an important role in highlighting the wide variety of different career opportunities in the industry.

“The regional Young Grower competitions and the national Young Grower of the Year final could not happen without the commitment of so many industry professionals across the country who give up their time to help organise them.

“Thanks to their dedication we can celebrate the skilled young people we have pursuing careers in the sector and raise awareness of those career opportunities to others.”

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