New World brings back Te Mata mushrooms

Te Mata Mushrooms' product is back on the shelves of Hastings New World.

The supermarket was one of three local supermarkets to drop Te Mata Mushrooms, a move many saw as retribution for its support of the Hastings City Growers' Market.

Te Mata is owned by Hastings City Business Association chairman Michael Whittaker, a champion of the Growers' Market.

Mr Whittaker would not comment on whether the supermarkets' decision to drop his product was related to his support of the Growers' Market.

Havelock North New World and Hastings Pak'n Save still do not stock the mushrooms, offering Christchurch-grown fungi instead, but on Friday night Te Mata Mushrooms' range of products were back on the shelves at Hastings New World. The owner/operated stores are part of the Foodstuffs supermarket chain, which had earlier said the decision to drop Te Mata Mushrooms was a "commercial decision" unrelated to the Saturday morning Growers' Market in the Hastings CBD. The brand would continue to be sold in Foodstuffs' other North Island stores.

However, on Friday afternoon Foodstuffs Corporate PR Director Antoinette Laird, said Hastings New World, owned by Brian Lucas, had decided to continue to stock Te Mata mushrooms as well as those from other suppliers. "The owner is committed to having an offering that is reflective of what his customers want and will continue to do so," she said.

The move follows a number of Hawke's Bay Today readers taking to the paper's Facebook page and website to criticise the decision to remove the product from supermarket shelves.

Hastings City Business Association manager Susan McDade said earlier that potential vendors at the Growers' Market had been worried participation would hinder chances of supplying supermarkets in the future, but since Foodstuffs had come forward and publicly stated that the dropping of Te Mata was unrelated to the market more vendors had come forward.