There are very few dedicated horticulture events in New Zealand, despite it being one of the country’s most significant export industries, and this has seen the event grow year-on-year as industry pushes for this to be the place for education, networking and information sharing.

The uniquely business-to-business event is growing to meet the industry’s demand with full support of its founding partners, seeing exhibition space increase to make room for more exhibitors and the BNZ Seminar Series moved to a dedicated venue.

The Field Day will be held on Friday, 8 July at Showgrounds Hawke’s Bay in Hastings, moving one month later, after the New Zealand National Fieldays to ensure exhibitors who wanted to attend both events could. Historically, the National Horticultural Field Day was the week before Mystery Creek.

The Field Day’s partners have supported from the outset with a shared vision to make this the major horticulture event for the year. With this backing, the event has found its niche, offering a place to come together for networking, education and development.

Trade sites sales are very strong with past exhibitors quickly rebooking their sites, and a great level of interest from new attendees who see the potential of a strictly horticulture event.

This year, the Field Day will be held in association with Horticulture New Zealand’s RSE Conference, which will be held in Napier the days preceding the Field Day. Hawke’s Bay has a large contingent of RSE workers and they are a key part of the local industry. As well as this Conference audience, Field Day organisers are expanding their marketing campaign to increase the number of visitors from across New Zealand.

As the Field Day grows, it is expanding to include vegetable and cropping industries and businesses, to enhance the traditionally apple focused event.

With many exhibitors travelling from outside of Hawke’s Bay to attend, and visitors from Auckland and the South Island impressed with the quality and size of the event last year, indicators are showing it will be another great event, as it cements itself as the must attend event on the horticulture calendar.