Photo: Apricot Picker Central Otago

A commercial apricot picker spends his days collecting the ripe fruit from the trees in an orchard near Roxburgh in Central Otago on the South Island of New Zealand.

A commercial apricot picker uses the appropriate equipment in Central Otago, New Zealand which is much easier to reap the ripe apricots in his orchard instead of picking them one by one. When the apricot trees are ready, this commercial picker gets out his machine and fills up the basket and then he can easily unload them into the crate to be shipped out.

Central Otago in New Zealand is one of the best places to grow apricots and it is a major apricot producing area. Throughout this region you will find that about 6.6 thousand tonnes of fruit come out of Central Otago on a yearly basis.

This commercial picker is just one of many that have an orchard full of delicious apricots and it usually helps when you can hire more people to help with the picking. Thousands of trees fill the orchard and if this commercial picker did not have the proper equipment for picking the apricots, the process would be a thousand times longer. ... continue below the picture...

... In fact, by the time he got to the last few trees, the apricots would probably be overripe.

Central Otago relies on the apricot orchards as a means of economic survival. This type of livelihood has been an ongoing practice since shortly after the Europeans settled in New Zealand. You will find that many people in Central Otago are commercial apricot pickers and make a fairly good living at it.

Commerical picker preparing to unload fresh picked apricots into a container in an orchard near Roxburgh, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand.