We are really proud of our strawberry operation and equally proud of our reputation as a premium berry growing company with a name for quality, delicious products grown with care and picked with pride.
Matakana Berry Co & Gala Berry are part of Fresh Food Exports which has been growing in Omaha Flats since 1991. In early 2016 Fresh Food Exports was bought by Grant & Lynda Ashby who are are extremely experienced “hands on” strawberry growers who grew under the Gala Berry brand in Coatesville/Albany. Their two children Matt and Tashi also work at Fresh Food Exports and are an important part of our business. Grant & Lynda have been growing strawberries since 1981, are family orientated and have an absolute passion for producing quality fruit and for New Zealand producing the world’s best!
Like the berries, Lynda & Grant’s very loyal team at Matakana Berry Co & Gala Berry are also hand-picked.
Grant & Lynda are the passion behind our strawberries! You will always find Grant in a Tractor, or feeling the soil between his toes. Lynda is normally at the packing table with our team of happy packers, making sure that our customers get only the best quality strawberries.
Toni is our accounts and administration person at Galaberry/Matakana Berry Co. She looks after all things that involve bits of paper and numbers. As a side line, Toni is also responsible for our Food Safety Programme & Compliancy requirements.
Our Human Resources Team are our resident "mother hens" and they take all our staff under their wings. Their role at Matakana Berry Co is not just human resources, but a bit of social worker and camp mother. Our HR Team ensures that the "human" factor is first and foremost in their work.
Our berries are hand-picked and packed every day so you can get freshest produce possible.
Strawberries are delicate and are vulnerable to heat damage so we developed specialised cooling facilities on our farm to chill the fruit to the absolute, perfect temperature.
