Wattie's starts round-the-clock pea harvest

Vegetable processor Heinz Wattie's Christchurch factory will switch to round-the-clock shifts this week to handle a particularly big crop of peas.

It will process 400 tonnes of peas daily for the next three months, in the wake of record plantings by contracted growers during July and August.

Agricultural manager Mark Daniels said the crop was looking a lot better than last year, and he is expecting improved yields -- around 30,000 tonnes of peas from more than 500 paddocks owned by 250 growers.

He said the pea season was one of the great harbingers of summer, "but for everyone involved there won't be a day off for the next three months -- except Christmas Day, if we are lucky".

This week's Canterbury harvests are being snap frozen within about two hours of harvest, and will be supplemented by peas grown and processed at Gisborne.

The Christchurch factory is the world's largest producer of dehydrated peas.