Product lead for the Syngenta viticulture and fruit portfolio across both Australia and NZ, Mathew spent eight weeks here during August and September, criss-crossing the country to cover all our main growing regions from Southland to Pukekohe.
As much of that time as possible was spent in orchards, vineyards and crops, talking to growers and finding out first-hand what challenges and opportunities they face.
Mathew’s been with Syngenta for nearly 30 years, and has held his current senior role since 2019.
Taking two months out of his schedule to focus exclusively on NZ might seem a bit extravagant, but as far as he’s concerned, it was time and money well spent.
“For a start, NZ represents 40 per cent of my portfolio value, so it’s a very important region for us.
“And while the crops themselves are the same here as they are in Australia, every market has its own nuances that you need to be aware of to make really informed decisions about both new product development and new opportunities for existing products.
“What might be an issue in Australia is not always the same in NZ, and vice versa.
“And you can’t understand those intricacies if you just fly in and fly out. You need to be on the ground for a long time, and immerse yourself in the industry, so people can see you’re committed, and you genuinely want to know what’s important to them.”
Also, it never hurts to have a key decision maker immediately on hand when a brand new pipfruit fungicide takes off straight after launch.
The Syngenta NZ release of Aptivis was the original prompt for Mathew’s trip here, and when it became apparent demand from local growers this season would exceed the initial market allocation, he acted accordingly and without delay.
“I could feel the excitement building and as product manager, on the ground, I could make a decision virtually then and there to organise increased supply, which was then sold out in a few days.
”Aptivis is registered for control of blackspot and powdery mildew on both apples and pears, and for alternaria leaf blotch on apples.
While it was a big talking point during his trip, Mathew says he also sought grower and merchant comments about a wide range of subjects to do with protecting many different crops from pests and disease.
Biologicals were a common theme of interest raised by both distributors and producers, and he’s taking away some ideas to discuss with the Syngenta global R&D team as a result.
Overall, he says NZ producers are really challenged with a lack of alternative options for insecticides and fungicides in a number of crops.
“Brassica insecticide programmes here, for example, are lacking some alternative modes of action, and heavily reliant on a small number of products.”
Tight fungicide resistance management programmes are also having much more of an impact on certain NZ crops than he realised.
“These are much more restricted than most countries, including Australia. And they tend to restrict options that NZ growers have in terms of spray timings, and chemical modes of action.
“In viticulture in Australia, for example, we follow the global Fungicide Resistance Action Committee (FRAC) guidelines, which say you can use three DMI (Group 3) fungicides in vines per growing season.
“But due to the onset of resistance in NZ, growers are restricted to one DMI application per growing season in winegrapes. Group 3 fungicides are lower cost chemistry, and highly effective if you don’t have resistance; this is an example of the extra layer of complexity NZ growers have to deal with. This is one example of a difference between the two countries.”
Another example is a fungicide mode of action that has been removed entirely from approved disease control programmes because of resistance in one pathogen, while it still retains activity against two other labelled pathogens.
Mathew also spent quite a bit of time talking about powdery mildew control in grapevines with growers and merchants.
“It was interesting to see the different approach wine grape growers take to managing this disease challenge. Typically, Australian growers start fighting powdery infections with synthetic fungicides earlier in the season.
“We’ll have the first synthetic chemistry applications on well before the beginning of flowering. Overall, I think growers on both sides of the Tasman Sea have things they can learn from each other.
“I look forward to future visits to New Zealand to further these discussions and see if we can help improve disease control outcomes for growers.”