If there’s a prize for the Young Horticulturist competition finalist with the healthiest diet, Taylor Leabourn is arguably a strong contender.

Afterall, during his work hours as produce lead at SKU Ltd in Wiri, he is surrounded by bananas… grapes, oranges, melons and pineapples.

Taylor, who will represent the Young Grower sector at the Young Horticulturist Competition, can add lettuce, broccoli, peas, carrots, sweetcorn, beans and potatoes to the overall picture too thanks to earlier jobs. Upon leaving university he worked for McCains in the Hawkes Bay in a field officer/agronomist role.

Hailing from central Auckland, Taylor was one of only a handful of “townies” in his cohort studying agricultural science at Massey University.

‘I’m forever grateful that my mum sent me to a careers advisor when I was at school struggling to decide what to do. This was brilliant as it opened my eyes to a whole lot of options. When Ag Science came up it just ticked a lot of boxes. My Grandparents had land out at Pukekohe and I enjoyed being there,” Taylor tells.

Now Taylor lives in Pukekohe and his granddad (Jim Leabourn) remains part of the picture.

Before coming to SKU Taylor first worked at McCains, which he says was just right for his interest in food production.

“It was a great first job. I was learning to be a professional and loved working alongside, and communicating with, farmers who were growing process vegetables.”

At McCains, where he worked for about three years, his learnings were mainly theoretical. After a few months’ off for overseas travel it was time to find a job with a greater focus on the practical. What he found was Sutherland Produce, that was later bought by Leaderbrand Produce Ltd.

With them, this lad from Glendowie learnt how to drive a tractor and a manual ute.

“I needed to be able to walk the walk. This job gave me a great opportunity to do that. I was planting crops, working the ground. A role came up which allowed me to become Crop Production Manager, which covered agronomy and the harvesting space,” Taylor says.

That job was in Bombay and he worked there until last year. One year in at SKU and Taylor says he enjoys “noting what works well, what could work better and taking things forward from there”.

The main part of SKU’s business is ripening bananas. After about six years out in the field, Taylor’s current job is more distribution and packhouse focused.

“I’d done the growing piece and I wanted to expand my knowledge to take in the next step in the produce journey,” he tells.

Communicating with various buyers – from Woolworth and Turners & Growers, for example – falls under his mandate.

He explains how SKU assists Woolworths and Turners & Growers in their importing endeavours. Specifically, SKU provides a service that involves the inspection, unloading and repalletization of stock, where required, to head to market.

“It’s pretty nice in the middle of winter when that tropical fruit comes in,” he smiles.

He counts himself lucky to have had variation in his working career. Giving back is important to him too, and he’s been helping out in the Pukekohe Young Grower space.

“Being able to have that involvement in horticulture is something I want to continue with. I want to continue to build relationships with buyers and businesses and probably take things to the next step, which is procurement of product. Building relationships with some of those clients, mainly in Mexico and Ecuador, would be great.

“Generally though, I just love being part of this food industry.”

The Young Horticulturist of the Year 2024 Grand Final is being held over two days at the Karaka Bloodstock on 30 and 31 October. Tickets to the Grand Final Dinner & Awards are available until 16 October from younghort.co.nz