Scott Wilcox from AS Wilcox is a talented young grower. Paving the way for the future generation in potatoes and in horticulture.
He grew up in Patumahoe, with his mother’s side of the family in kiwifruit and avocadoes around Tauranga, and his father’s side of the family in root crops. Scott says that he was surrounded with growing vegetables and fresh produce as he was growing up.
Although there was no pressure to work on the farm, he developed a passion for horticulture and the farming lifestyle. Scott comes from a third generation family business with about 200 staff also on the mission to grow vegetables.
The history of grandad and his brothers pioneering growing vegetables around Pukekohe has been inspirational to Scott and this has motivated Scott to get more and more involved in the farming operation as he was growing up. He says, “I saw the positives of the products we grew and the potential for others like them.”
Currently Scott is a technical crop supervisor for carrots and potatoes in the Pukekohe region.
This role is about developing plans to deliver a crop to post harvest and the sales team, basically including everything along the supply chain, such as preparing, growing and harvesting the crops with the field team.
Scott enjoys producing a fantastic food product that can be enjoyed in so many tasty ways very rewarding. No day is the same in his job and there are always opportunities at every single stage to improve the results from the previous season.
He like to get outdoors either hunting, free diving or fishing with friends and he also pursues the perfect hot chip at home, which takes up a bit of time.
One of the significant challenges he has faced was a 6 month work stint in Germany and with the language barrier being a real struggle. His Deutsch pronunciation wasn’t quite as good as it needed to be and not being able to communicate well was isolating for him and made it hard to get things done. However, Scott had a clear plan going into it, around what I wanted to achieve personally and professionally, which helped him to focus on the situation and tasks at hand. Also, a great support network back in New Zealand, helped him get through the tough times.
For the future, Scott is looking forward to marrying his high school sweetheart this coming summer. After being friends for years, they made it official when they finished university.
Photo credit: Matt Silcock