Time to collaborate

Tim Tietjen

Opinion

Tairāwhiti is a fruit bowl region and while the total volume of all food grown here is huge, we are not the biggest producer of many horticultural crops.

Our apple crops are a fraction of that produced in Hawke’s Bay; vineyards are plentiful in Gisborne but are only 3 percent of the national portfolio and small when compared to Marlborough. Anyone who has recently flown into Gisborne will have noticed the rapid expansion of the hail-protection nets preferred by kiwifruit growers, and while the region’s area in production has close to tripled in the past five or so years, we still only grow around 3 percent of the national kiwifruit crop.

All this means that when it comes time for the industry groups our growers pay levies to to allocate their scarce resources, Tairāwhiti is often a fair way down the list. This is where collaboration and a common voice is so important and is where I believe the Chamber of Commerce can help be an independent voice for the businesses of our region’s growers.

Without wanting to repeatedly bang the drum about roading resilience, our growers’ livelihoods and the jobs their businesses provide depend on getting their perishable products out of the district to packhouses or processing facilities as well as the markets where they are sold.

In horticulture, timing is everything and a road closure or series of road closures at the wrong time risks stranding fruit or vegetables in Gisborne, which would have a devastating impact on our local economy. The Gisborne Chamber of Commerce is an active participant in advocating for improvements to the resilience of our roading network.

Recent conversations with senior growers have highlighted the fact that the “good old days” are long gone, but are they really? Our resources that used to be so abundant for growing produce — lots of land, easy access to irrigation water supplies and plenty of sunshine — seem now to be in such short supply, yet relative to many growing regions around the world, we are still in an enviable position.

We still have plenty of undeveloped land in the region and fingers crossed the worst of the weather events from the past few seasons are behind us. (Although while we are growing outside, horticulture will always be exposed to Mother Nature’s extremes.) The largest impediment to high-value horticultural development in the region has been a lack of access to water for irrigation.

The Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) Project completed in 2021 appears to be a solution to so many of our water access issues. It would improve the water quality of the Makauri aquifer, reduce the risk of saltwater intrusion into the aquifer, and allow for more land to be irrigated as the risk of aquifer decline would be greatly reduced. It would also leave highly productive land to be used for food production rather than water storage in the form of tanks or dams. While MAR almost sounds like a silver bullet bringing more jobs and economic prosperity for the region, the costs of individual growers establishing their own scheme is prohibitive.

The time is now for a collaborative approach to solving our challenges. Strong cooperation is needed between individual growers, industry groups, advocacy groups (such as the chamber), and local and central government to supercharge the value that horticulture can create in our region. We need strong leadership and vision to realise our region’s potential and improve the prosperity of all people in Tairāwhiti.

This is our region and it’s a great one — let’s take it to the next level together.

■  Tim is a fifth-generation grower on the Turanga Flats and is an executive member of the Gisborne Chamber of Commerce, NZ Kiwifruit Growers Inc regional representative and is vice president of the Tairāwhiti Growers Association.