About Dr Hans Maurer
Dr Hans Maurer has gathered Fresh Produce System Knowledge during fifty years of a global horticulture and produce industry career. His career started as an apprentice nurseryman, specialising in the production of trees for commercial orchardists in Germany, as well as stints in large ornamental horticulture and amenity horticulture operations the UK.
Early Years
Following my arrival in New Zealand in 1981, I managed a South Auckland Garden Centre and wholesale nursery, set up a perennial plant nursery in West Auckland, and worked for a period as an Employment Officer for the then New Zealand Department of Labour, before entering the corporate supermarket industry.
New Zealand has been my base for forty plus years but my work has taken me around the globe, as fresh produce is a global business. My Fresh Produce System Knowledge is therefore based both local New Zealand as well as global influences. These are in reality very interlinked, as this is the nature of our industry.
Corporate Career
In 1987, I accepted the position of Plant & Flower buyer for Foodtown Supermarkets, at the time one of several mainstream New Zealand supermarket chains. In 1989, I was appointed to head the company's fresh produce department with responsibility for purchasing, ranging, pricing and merchandising the fruit, vegetables and floral categories across the companies 30+ stores at the time. By the time I left the company to go into business on my own in 1999 , I was responsible for a $100 million annual purchasing budget, using it to stock 85 Foodtown, Countdown and Three Guys branded supermarkets across the country daily with fresh fruit & vegetables.
Business Establishment
Horticulture is in my blood. My family has been farming, growing grapes and making wine in the southwestern part of Germany, near the Rhine, since 1657. Establishing a horticultural and fresh produce focused consultancy and services business therefore seemed to be the next logical step. This I did, together with two partners, in 2000. The business is based in Auckland but offers its services across the entire country. The key focus are commercial and regulatory inspection of imported, as well export bound, fruits and vegetables.
I am a director of the company.
Action Learning
As the business grew, I became an advocate of Action Learning, both as a learner as well as someone who worked with managers, across a broad spectrum, who were keen to advance their careers, using Action Learning principles. The Association of International Management Centres (IMCA) was a global professional
commonwealth for lifelong career and management development through action learning in
the workplace. Its motto was ‘Career Success through Action Learning at Work’, and all its
activities were oriented along these lines. IMCA was delivering action learning programmes
in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, South Africa, Singapore,
Malaysia, China, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu to individuals, commercial enterprises
and government departments between 1985 and 2018.
Industry Engagement
I am a member of the United Fresh New Zealand Inc. Executive Committee. I act as the organisation's Knowledge Officer and Chair of its Technical Advisory Group.
United Fresh is the New Zealand member of the International Federation for Produce Standards (IFPS). I chair the IFPS Standards & Information Management Committee.
IFPS has liaison status with ISO T/C 347 Data-driven agrifood systems. I am the IFPS global liaison with that ISO committee as well as IWA 47 which concerns itself with the reference architecture for Data-driven agrifood systems.
Fresh Facts
Fresh Facts is an annual publication that compiles data and insights about the New Zealand fresh produce industry, providing critical information on trends and statistics related to fruit and vegetable production, export values, and market analysis. Fresh Facts is managed by United Fresh. I am the editor of the publication.
About Dr Hans Maurer - Concluding Comments
My fresh produce career has taken me around the world. I have grown, grafted and sold young fruit trees. I have worked in fresh industry supply chains within the purchasing, distribution, merchandising and marketing functions. I also studied, learned and taught about our industry within various tertiary environments.
If I had to pick two highlights, one each from the extreme ends of the continuum, then these would be holding a lecture at Peking University in Beijing on "Learning, Technology & Human Development", and working with strawberry growers in the Papa New Guinea Highlands near Mount Wilhelm (Enduwa Kombuglu) in Chimbu Province, where one only travels with body guards if one values one's life.
The challenge I worked on there, amongst others, was how, and in what condition, to move harvested strawberries from a remote place, which one would not expect to be suitable for strawberry production in the first place, down the mountain to an airfield so that they could be flown to Port Moresby, and arrive in a state that they could enter the capital's fresh produce supply chain and contribute to an import substitution programme.
