Eight top young growers, including two women, will compete for the 2015 Bay of Plenty Young Grower of the year award in a day long competition at Mills Reef next month.

The winner will represent the Bay at the National Young Grower of the Year competition in Christchurch in August.

The 2014 Bay of Plenty Young Grower of the year Patrick Malley with Minster for Primary Industries at last year's event. Patrick will be MC for this year's awards.

Seven of the competitors come from the Bay of Plenty region, with the eighth young growers making the trip down from Whangarei.

The competition puts contestants through a range of key tests, with challenges ranging from biosecurity to fungicide treatment, designed around the fundamental skills needed to run a successful fruit-growing business.

The final test is to present a speech to the audience during the evening's gala dinner which will also feature charity auction to raise funds for Vanuatu cyclone relief.

The public is welcome to attend the day's events but the dinner for the award's night is sold out.

Last year's winner Patrick Malley from Northland who also won the national title, will be the evening's MC and keynote speaker is Bay of Plenty National MP and former kiwifruit postharvest company chief executive Todd Muller.

The day time event will also feature the Cultivate Your Career Day designed to show students in Years 11, 12 and 13 the options available to them in horticultural, and how different parts of the industry work together to make horticulture one of New Zealand's largest industry sectors.

Plant & Food Research will be one of eight organisations taking part and will be running activities showing how different areas of science, including microscopy, insect science and plant biology, can be applied in the field to improve the profitability of kiwifruit orchards.

The 2015 Bay of Plenty Young Grower of the year award will be held on July 24 at Mills Reef.

The contestants are: Aaron Hokopaura (24) – grower services representative and technical support at Aongatete Coolstores Limited, Katikati; Chris Clement (28) – line manager at Apata Group Limited, Te Puke; Craig Ward (26) – technical advisor at Apata Group Limited, Katikati; Reuben Wallis (30) – orchard gang supervisor at Onyx Horticulture Ltd, Whangarei; Courtenay McBride (21) – Baygold staff supervisor at Baygold Ltd, Te Puke; Greg Brown (25) – production manager at Seeka Kiwifruit Industries, Te Puke; Simon Bowker (28) - orchard manager at EHC Orchard Management, Te Puke and Samantha Mansell (27) – assistant quality manager at Seeka Kiwifruit Industries, Te Puke.