It’s strange to think that the original Parlato farm in Moutoa, Manawatu, was supplying MG Marketing (MG) with 20Kg sacks of potatoes 40 years ago to sell via auction – they’ve come a long way.
Since they were children, brothers Craig and Tony Parlato have been immersed in horticulture. They spent their early days on the farm with their father, Ivan, and other, Barbara, who started by focusing solely on growing potatoes for the New Zealand domestic market.
The pair now run an extremely diverse and highly sophisticated operation. Parlato Farming Co continue to produce potatoes but also grow onions and are a major pumpkin supplier to MG.
The brothers also farm livestock, including goats which are milked to produce baby formula which is exported to China.
“We’ve become quite diversified in what we’re doing,” says Craig. “It’s all a bit different and spreads the risk - something is normally down in value while something else is doing alright, so it works out.”
“We try to lease as much land as we can for cropping. It gives us good flexibility when it comes to land rotation which is really important for soil health.”
“We crop from Levin to our home bases in Moutoa and Opiki and also in Bulls which is around a 70km radius so pretty spread out.”
“With our own farm we do a bit of fattening of lambs and a bit of beef while also milking goats and growing maize.”
It is clear they are a business that doesn’t stand still and that they're prepared to move with the times.
“Our area has changed a heck of a lot in the last two decades,” says Craig. “It’s one from one of the largest potato growing regions to now only having a handful of growers.”
“There was a large processing plant in Feilding and when that closed its doors it had a big impact. There’s also been a massive shift towards dairy farming in this area.”
Technology has changed greatly since Craig and Tony became involved in the business and they see it as a crucial part of the long-term viability. Labour is an ongoing challenge and Craig says that more-and-more they are turning to automation to support the business.
“Adding automation is not only about responding to the increased labour costs and higher cost of production. For us it’s about investing in areas that help us alleviate existing problems.”
“Our biggest issue is finding casual staff during our busy periods so the machinery we have helps fill the gap. The nature of our business doesn’t really fit with the RSE scheme because we don’t always have a consistent workload.”
“Potatoes, onions and pumpkin are not like greens for example - all our work comes at once.”
“We have a small team of really great staff who have worked for us for years, but we need an additional 20-25 sets of hands when we’re at our busiest.”
“The key for us is choosing equipment that best responds to the needs of our growing operation.”
“For example, we have recently invested in machinery for the packhouse which improves the way we bag and pallet onions.”
The Parlato family have partnered with MG for around four decades. The business has evolved over time and so has the relationship with MG.
“We grow a lot of pumpkins for MG as well as supply potatoes and onions at different times throughout the year”, says Tony. “Our strongest markets are Auckland and Hamilton but we supply all of the North Island branches at different times.”
“MG procurement manager Andrew Body keeps in touch and regularly visits our farm” adds Craig. “We first met playing rugby in Levin – you just have to look at us now to know that was a long time ago.”
Brothers Craig and Tony Parlato with MG Representative Andrew Body