Orchard Programmes Specialist

About Zespri:

Zespri is the world's largest marketer of kiwifruit with over 800 people in New Zealand and throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas.

We help people, communities and the environment thrive through the goodness of kiwifruit.

We sit at the heart of an interconnected industry working with 2,800 growers in New Zealand and 1,500 growers in Italy, France, Greece, South Korea and Japan.

We supply the world's healthiest little superfruits to people in more than 50 countries. We are fruit on a mission.

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. We commit to guardianship; putting people, the community, and the environment first. We are results-driven, challenging ourselves to grow and deliver better value. We cultivate personal connections, listening and acting with empathy and humility - and treating each other better for it.

We are growing quickly, driven by our success in engaging more and more consumers and by offering the world's best kiwifruit 12 months of the year.

We have bold ambitions and aim to grow sales from approximately $3 billion in 2018 to $4.5 billion by 2025.

To achieve our goals, we're empowering our people to achieve their goals, designing our work for wellbeing, through flexible work practices and self-leadership.

We have bold ambitions for the future and we want all of our people to live and perform at their best.

About The Role:

This position fits in the Zespri Orchard Productivity Center (OPC) team, whose core role is to work with growers and technicians to lead orchard productivity and fruit quality improvements.

The team is responsible for our business is improving grower profitability owhilst allowing Zespri to keep its premium position on markets.

The role is key to lifting growers' results is understanding the technical, regulatory and financial context of their production region, and integrating this into the design of extension programmes.

Reporting to the Orchard Programmes Regional Manager Center & South and based in Calabria or Basilicata, this role contributes to the orchard Extension Programmes for Zespri varieties in Italy, with main focus in Southern regions (Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia, Campania), through field days, workshops and orchard support, also including involvement in trials across Italy.

In addition, with the rest of the OPC team, the Orchard Programmes Specialist is developing and coordinating communication within the country, ensuring growers receive appropriate information at appropriate timing, under appropriate format, and through right channels.

Another key aspect of the role is to develop and keep strong connections with local growers and orchards technicians from our OP partners.

Working in conjunction with other ZGS Europe team members, especially the Grower Liaison Specialist South Italy, and with key industry stakeholders will be critical to success of the programmes.

Accountabilities:

Relationships

• Develop and maintain excellent relationships with growers, technicians, and supplier partners, as well as kiwifruit industry bodies in Italy, focusing on Southern Italy
• Support to the Grower Liaison Specialist South Italy for all relationship management focus on orchard activities.
• Link with other Europe teams to exchange relevant data and support extension programs and other programs in place with the Italian Zespri industry
• Provide regular information from Italy to the wider Zespri industry as requested through symposiums, journal articles, or internal communications channels.
• Provide a report about activities once a month
• Participate actively in the Global Extension activities (Yammer, Webinars, Conference, etc.)

Trials and data analysis

• Contribute to setting up the trial plan for the year, considering ideas from the industry both in Italy and outside. Keep a proactive look at what is done in other countries and provide the interface to allow trials to take place
• Manage several trials from protocol to reporting so that will either answer a question relevant for growers, serve as a demo, or offer innovative solutions. Collect and analyze data in a timely fashion. File online all protocols and reports

Extension programs and delivery

• Contribute to the design and delivery of annual extension programs in Italy adapting to specific regional needs
• Organize and deliver field days, workshops, orchard events, and support to growers and technicians across Italy especially in Southern Italy in conjunction with other staff members linking with experts when appropriate
• Develop and manage a set of tools to transfer information and knowledge to the growers in an effective way, including information from other teams that are relevant to growers (namely smart monitoring information and market information)
• Support the wider team in different initiatives where extension expertise is needed, transfer relevant information when needed, and collaborate through projects

**Qualifications & Experi

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