Apples

The farmer-owned meat Co-op, Alliance Group has taken on 40 staff members of an Oamaru meat company which was forced to suspend exports to China. Audio

Professor Max Suckling has been to Italy to see the devastation in crops caused by the brown marmorated stink bug. He's been looking at ways of trapping the bug and other controls that could help… Audio

Dr David Chagne and his team from Plant and Food Research are working on ways to speed up improvements consumers and industry want to see in our plants and crops.. Audio

Environmentalists say apple juice production is better for the planet than the processes involved in making orange juice and we should switch the drinks around. Nutritionist Claire Turnbull doesn't… Audio

Olia Alpatskaya is from the Ural Mountains in Russia and trained as a mining engineer. She came to New Zealand for a better life with her children and to escape biting minus 30 winter temperatures… Audio, Gallery

An orchard in Hawke's Bay has become the first to use a robot in a commercial apple harvest. T & G Global's Chief Operating Officer Peter Landon-Lane joins Kathryn to talk about what it means for a… Audio

Hawke's Bay is struggling with a labour shortage, just as this year's bumper crop of apples and pears is ripe for picking. Gary Jones, from New Zealand Apple and Pears says it's time for a… Audio

Graham Jensen has been growing fruit just north of Auckland for 42 years. He used to be one of hundreds of orchardists in the Auckland area - now only four remain. Audio

Some vineyard owners are choosing to tear out the grapes in favour of apples, citing the continued corporatisation of winemaking in New Zealand and the prohibitively high price of releasing your own… Audio

Plant and Food Research is trialing a radically new way of growing trees. It is training them to grow like candelabra. Audio

Susan Murray checks in with an apple harvesting gang and an apple orchardist who says proposed wage increases will cost him an extra $75,000 dollars a year. Audio

Simon Easton has a 60-hectare apple orchard in the Tasman region. He says every year it gets harder to find fruit pickers, but this year takes the cake. Audio

If you're baking with apples, Granny Smith are best as they pulp down quickly and easily, says Carey White. The Rangiora orchardist shares her recipe for (gluten-free) gooey melt apple brownies. Audio

New Zealand apple experts are working with growers in Himachal Pradesh to improve production of the region's apple trees. Audio

Our guest this week is the chief executive of New Zealand Apples and Pears, Alan Pollard. He's in Berlin, Germany at present attending a massive fresh produce trade show called Fruit Logistica. Over… Audio

Brian Belluomini and Sarah Wright of Mela Juice think the secret to their juice just might be the sturdy, not overly efficient, 40-year-old juicer they inherited. Mela Juice produces single-variety… Audio

Motueka apple orchardist Evan Heywood has damage to five hectares of fruit from a bad batch of fungicide. Audio