Tomatoes: Low prices hurting New Zealand growers

There has been an oversupply of tomatoes in the domestic market, depressing prices. Photo / Pixabay

By RNZ

While cheap tomatoes may be good news for shoppers at the checkout, low prices are hurting returns for the country’s growers.

It has been a bumper crop with good volumes and quality for the country’s roughly 120 commercial tomato growers this season.

But after a third season without being able to export to Australia due to a pepino mosaic virus, or PepMV, outbreak in 2021, there has been an oversupply in the domestic market, depressing prices.

Tomatoes New Zealand chairman Barry O’Neil said the season started well, with good prices for growers, but with lots of tomatoes in the market now, prices had dived.

“As the season went on and production increased, volumes increased and prices come down,” O’Neil said.

“So towards the end of the season, growers have been losing money on the tomatoes that they’re selling into the supermarkets, which isn’t flash.

“Obviously growers, they’re struggling to actually survive in situations like we’re in at the moment.”

He said about 10 per cent of the crop was usually exported, to top market Australia and other countries - but that was well down to 1 or 2 per cent this current year.

He said when tomatoes were retailing here for as low as $2.99 a kilogram in supermarkets - that means growers would not break even.

“Not good, not good at all. You’ve got to be north of that for the grower to actually recover the costs of the production.

“The returns that growers [are] getting at the moment certainly are not reflecting those increased production costs.

“So as a result, growers will leave the industry, no doubt.”

O’Neil said he hoped New Zealand shoppers would support the local industry by buying locally-grown tomatoes in the produce markets and supermarkets, instead of imported fruit.

Stats NZ figures showed the value of the export crop had fallen in recent years - earning $3.88 million in 2022 to 2023 - after peaking just before Covid-19 and the PepMV virus halted exports to Australia, at $12.2m.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said it was working with its counterparts across the ditch, the Australian Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), to resolve the issue.

MPI manager of plant exports, Shane Olsen said exports were suspended in 2021 as PepMV was a regulated quarantine pest for Australia.

Olsen said progress was being made in negotiations.

“We are working with DAFF to finalise new conditions for imports of fresh tomatoes from New Zealand,” he said.

“MPI and DAFF are in the process of finalising new conditions for imports of fresh tomatoes from New Zealand, and we are hopeful tomatoes from New Zealand will be able to be exported to Australia soon.”

- RNZ