Assessment Of Jade Garden Produce Limited's Horticulture Essay In NZ.

Discuss and analyze the factors involved in the horticulture business considering a firm of New Zealand. 

Role of Location in Horticulture Business

In this report our discussion will be on the assessment or evaluation of the horticulture business of a limited company of New Zealand namely Jade Garden Produce Limited. The company was launched on 28^th July, 1998 in Christchurch. Allen Lim and Joanna Adrienne Lim are the two active directors of the company. The horticulture business refers to the production, transforming and shipping as well as the marketing for mainly fruits, vegetables and flowers. It also includes some additional services like plant preservation, rebuilding of landscapes, soil management, designing g of garden and landscapes, maintenance and construction and forestry.  The report will discuss in details the role of the four major factors of production which helps to determine the horticultural production systems, namely location, labour, capital and entrepreneurship (Burghelea, 2014).

Location plays an important part in the horticulture business. It must be a place where there is availability of proper light and a continual supply of water. The place where the company Jade Garden Produce Limited is located has all the above said facilities and apart from these, the site is also free from high winds and unshaded mountains and trees. The place also has a good drainage system of surface water and subsurface drainage in plenty, which do not allow water-logging, which is very harmful for horticulture business. The location also has an easy access to labour, and all-weather roads for transport to market, so that the products can be transferred to the market without any damage caused to the products due to any kind of changes in the weather. Another major factor needed in this business is the proper availability of reliable and economically efficient energy in the form of electricity and fuel needed for heating and mechanical cooling (Piza et al, 2016). The company also gets benefited from the direct marketing, as the place is not too far from the locality where the products can be sold to the customers without facing much hassle.  The customers can also have the facility to see the producing area, which is having a good impact for the company. The soil is also very much favorable to grow a number of high quality product. The pH, salinity, texture and structure of the soil as well as the depth of each soil layer and the presence of compaction and impeding layers are all there in that location, which helps in a healthy productivity of the products produced by Jade Garden (Staritz & Reis, 2013). 

Importance of Labour in Horticulture Business

Another important factor in this kind of business is labour. The demand of skilled labour is very urgent here. They are needed for spraying, trimming, thinning, harvesting, arranging and packing, though their need is seasonal and mainly for short periods that can vary from six to sixteen weeks, according to the requirement by the company and the type of product they are growing in the location. The working hours within the same week may also vary from four to ten hours per day. The number of pickers also varies as per the type of product harvested by Jade Garden. To overcome the regularity of the kind of work in horticulture, the company regularly hire backpackers for casual employment and for a short span of time. But Jade Garden have an accommodation facility just beside the working area so this eliminates the need for employees who are looking for the same. As the location is not so far from the city, availability of workers is not a big deal for this company, as the individual workers generally do not want to travel for more than 20km per day (Russell et al, 2015). The company also provides vehicles to provide the pick-up and drop for the workers, if there is any kind of urgency or weather problems.  Most of the labours used by this company comes from the background which are most suitable for this business to grow efficiently (Gluckman, 2017). 

The most important factor to start a business is the capital needed and the capital already available with the company. An enterprise budget is followed by this company. Apart from the personal capital invested by the two directors of the company at the start of the business, operating loans has been taken to purchase items like farm equipments, fuel, chemicals needed in the farm, insurances for some of the permanent workers of this company, livestock and their feed, minor improvements or repairs to the buildings present in the area of Jade Garden Produce Limited. The loan is used to buy the machineries needed in this business, and to buy those which might be required to replace an old machinery or two. Loan is taken to upgrade the equipments as well as to repair the damaged part of the buildings possessed by the company. As it takes some time to grow the crop and establish it, generating profit from that is a bit difficult. The farm and livestock equipments are pretty expensive, so the company has to invest and manage the capital investments accordingly. The company invested for to buy general soil tillage and crop management equipments like different types of spray units are also included in this investments. Money is also invested for intellectual properties like patents, industrial designs, trademarks, copyrights, safeguarding the confidential information, trade secrets and protecting the varieties of crop produced by the company (Mitchell, 2015). 

Capital Investment in Horticulture Business

Managing a business is not an everyone’s cup of tea, and when it comes to horticulture business, it needs proper management and efficiency as it is the prime goal of the farm owners. The quality of decision making by the management board in this company is very much effective. Anyone who will visit the compound can see the kind of quality decision making taken by the board of management, which is actually helping the organization in the longevity of the business. The management practices that have influenced this company to frame the strategic direction for future references are mainly the measures to prevent pollution and measures to mitigate pollution. The pollution is prevented from croplands as well as farm animals. All the companies, including Jade Garden has to follow the rules and regulations given by the government of New Zealand to follow. If pollution is made on an increase basis and preventive measures are not taken, then the license of doing horticulture business will be cancelled as well as severe penalty has to be paid by the company in terms of money. The management practices followed by this company to have an influence on crop yielding or plant output are storm water management and time management. Proper time management helps in proper yielding and harvesting crop, which helps to grow the company by earning good amount of revenue. This also helps in productivity and safety of the products produced by Jade Garden (Mitchell, 2015). 

Conclusion

From the above discussed report, it can be concluded that proper planning, implementation and control by the management board has helped Jade Garden Produce Limited tremendously to grow and sustain in the business of horticulture. Managing a firm is a throughout year responsibility, and only proper and efficient management can help to produce high quality of products which can improve the brand image as well as the brand identity of the company. The management board invest quality time in analyzing the opportunities and threats to their business and make adjustments so the company continues to remain competitive in the marketplace in this high global competitive place. The company successfully cope up with the climate changes and plan their strategies accordingly. The company also beautifully read the ever-changing mind of the people and produce the product accordingly, which in turn helps the company to have a competitive edge. 

References

Burghelea, C., (2014). DYNAMICS OF PRODUCTION INDICATORS IN HORTICULTURE. Calitatea, 15(S1), p.414.

Gluckman, P. (2017). New Zealand’s fresh waters: values, state, trends and human impacts. Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, 12

Hadley, D. (2017). Controlled Environment Horticulture Industry Potential in NSW.

Mitchell, C. A. (2015). Academic research perspective of LEDs for the horticulture industry. HortScience, 50(9), 1293-1296.

Patel, V. B., Thakkar, R. G., & Radadiya, B. L. (2014). An android application for farmers to disseminate horticulture information. International Journal of Computer Applications, 88(4).

Piza, C., Cravo, T., Taylor, L., Gonzalez, L., Musse, I., Furtado, I., ... & Piza, C. (2016). The Impact of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 1.

Russell, J. C., Innes, J. G., Brown, P. H., & Byrom, A. E. (2015). Predator-free New Zealand: conservation country. BioScience, 65(5), 520-525.

Staritz, C., & Reis, J. G. (2013). Global value chains, economic upgrading, and gender: Case studies of the horticulture, tourism, and call center industries.

Underhill, E., & Rimmer, M. (2017). Private governance, state regulation and employment standards: how political factors shape their nexus in Australian horticulture. Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, 72(1), 33-55.

Zasada, I., Loibl, W., Köstl, M., & Piorr, A. (2013). Agriculture under human influence: a spatial analysis of farming systems and land use in european rural-urban-regions. European Countryside, 5(1), 71-88.