CROP PROTECTION CANOPIES

As major investors in the Australian horticulture industry, Rewards Group Ltd needs to ensure maximized returns on all funds invested, particularly in orchard infrastructure. Accordingly, our choice of contractors is critical to the final success of any project.

At Rewards we recognise that NetPro Pty Ltd is clearly the industry leader when it comes to protective canopies. They have the best quality product, and a reputation to match. Rewards Group is now a major client of Netpro, having recently covered over 90 hectares of stonefruit orchards at Childers, and we are also finalizing new canopies at our Kumbia orchard.

Canopy construction is still on-going, and we are 100% satisfied with the projects completed for us in the three years to date. The quality of finish, the robust engineering … it’s all first-class. Our choice & trust in NetPro has been well and truly vindicated by the finished results. We consider the canopies to be a serious & integral factor in the protection of our fruit — consequently it’s been a high component of our investment in these projects.

Apart from the known protection features (from fruit-bats, birds and hail), we are capitalising on the valuable bonus that the canopy structure creates a controlled microclimate, resulting in wind reduction (with less fruit-rub), more stable growing temperatures, and enhanced colour. All in all, it creates a safe & ideal environment for the production of our fruit.

As a fruitgrower myself, I have worked closely with Netpro over many years covering my own orchards, so already had plenty of previous experience with their highly professional standards.

I’m writing to thank you for your excellent product. We covered our ten year old lychee patch with the Fruit Fly net using steel post/poly pipe tunnels. The result has been extraordinary – the first time we have ever been able to harvest clean, mature fruit from these trees! The feeling under the nets is one of complete peace – protected from all predatory insects and birds.

Until now we ate lychees as half-green, tart fruit in order to rescue some from the lorikeets, crows, macadamia nut borers, wasps, elephant beetles, fruit flies and all manner of sucking insects only ever seen at lychee harvest time. As no fruit is being damaged there are no juice or rotting fruit aromas to attract these pests either. It is clear to us now – to ensure a harvest from any fruit tree it needs to be covered with this net.