Supply chain disrupted for fresh fruit and vegetables

LeaderBrand is working to maintain the supply of vegetables to market, a supply chain that has been disrupted by the closure of State Highway 2 at Otoko. This LeaderBrand block of red and white cabbage in Tucker Road was soaking up the sunshine yesterday morning. Picture by Liam Clayton

The closure of State Highway 2 north due to land stability issues at Otoko has disrupted the supply chain for fresh fruit and vegetables out of the Gisborne district.

Countdown Supermarket chain yesterday put out an advisory  to its customers pointing to the  potential impact on fruit and vegetable availability in their stores across the country.

“Due to road closures, our key produce suppliers are facing difficulties in transporting fruits and vegetables from Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay,” said Ryan McMullen, Countdown’s general manager fruit and vegetables.

“Unfortunately, it may take some time before the situation improves.”

Waka Kotahi has said SH2 north at Otoko will be closed until at least Friday due to the stability issues there and the detour that became available yesterday will not be open to heavy freight vehicles.

“As a result, bagged salads, lettuce, broccoli, and mandarins will be in limited supply in our stores for at least the next few days,” Mr McMullen said.

“This year has been incredibly challenging for our growers, and we stand in full support of them, and we appreciate your understanding as we work with them to maintain normality during this weather event,” he said.

LeaderBrand general manager Richard Burke said they were still experiencing challenging times.

“The frail infrastructure that we have on the East Coast plus the damage from cyclones this season and now a big rain event has meant that our normal service has been disrupted.

“We are still harvesting and have crops in front of us, although it has been through some trying conditions.

“We have the best team around for keeping the disruption to a minimum and we hope that some much needed sunshine will arrive in the next day or so to help us out,” Mr Burke said.

“The key issue for us is our roading network, which has been a focus for LeaderBrand for some time.

“We carry some real risk that we have no control over roads out of this district.

“Although we have had good discussions on repairs, we are looking for the full resilience package  to  give us some confidence that we can get a long-term solution to roading infrastructure in our region.

“We cannot afford to have this sort of disruption whenever we have a larger rain event.”