Vision

Remember harvesting those gorgeously yellow-orange fruit with Mum and Dad beneath the ginkgo tree in autumn?

Then that smelly ritual of washing the soft flesh away to reveal the amazing blonde shelled nuts that Grandma always swore were so good for you? Now you’re a long way from home and — with shells already gone and kernels already cooked and arranged like pills in a plastic pouch that you buy from the Asian Store freezer – ginkgo nuts seem to have lost their romance.

But what if you could buy plump fresh ginkgo nuts grown in the clean, green environment of New Zealand? 

What if the fruit storage technologies that have made New Zealand famous for year-round supplies of high quality fruit like kiwifruit were used to make ginkgo nuts available, fresh, year round anywhere in the world? 

What if they were delivered fresh to your door so you didn’t have to hunt for them in the Asian supermarket? 

Sounds wonderfully impossible?

Welcome to the vision of Graham and Mavis Dyer. 

In 1960, they bought the land that has now become the family orchard – “Bay Park” – in the uniquely prolific and pristine growing environment of New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, which is home to the world famous New Zealand kiwifruit industry. Here, Graham and Mavis have grown their family – children and grandchildren – as well as their orcharding capabilities. And their focus has always been on collaborating with nature – an approach that led to their orchard being recognised as the Supreme Winner of the nationally prestigious Ballance Sustainability Award in 2011.

Since 1995, they have been chasing a new vision: establishing and developing the world’s first ginkgo orchard in the Southern Hemisphere. Importing superior plant material in 2005, grafting the trees in 2007 and tending them towards adulthood, Graham and Mavis were excited about the very first fruit being harvested from their own trees in 2015.

The orchard’s beautiful ginkgo trees are now in the second year of production and producing succulent and delicious tasting nuts to market.

Our Manifesto

Over the past thirty years, we have hosted literally thousands of visitors from overseas who are keen to come and see our orchard in New Zealand’s sunny Bay of Plenty. People say that travel broadens the mind – and we have done our fair share of travelling. But in our case, we have had so many visitors, that we have learnt most from those who have visited us.

We have seen first hand how we share so many aspirations, hopes and concerns with those from very diverse parts of the world. This is what makes us so passionate about building bridges between cultures – something that has become a guiding principle for developing our Ginkgo NZ business.