A flood of cheap Chinese garlic seven years ago hurt the garlic industry, but now local growers are marketing their product as fresher and more juicy than the imported variety.
New Zealand Garlic Company marketing manager Pat Murphy said local growers could not directly compete with Chinese garlic.
"We can produce garlic
for around $5 a kilo but Chinese garlic arrives in the country at a cost of 80c a kilo. They can produce it for next to nothing."
China exports 500,000 tonnes of garlic a year, and controls more than 75 per cent of the world garlic market. In comparison the New Zealand garlic industry produces between 300 and 500 tonnes a year.
Murphy said that as a result of the imports of Chinese garlic, the number of growers in Marlborough - where most New Zealand garlic is grown - had slumped from 12 to four in just five years.
"I still get angry when I hear about the Government wanting to open up exports with China. Allowing Chinese garlic into New Zealand almost destroyed our industry and it has the potential to do the same to any other industry in this country."
But Marlborough's garlic industry has been saved by consumer power - twice as much garlic is now sold locally.
"We are lucky that New Zealanders are wealthy enough to be able to choose which garlic they buy and increasingly they are choosing to buy on quality rather than price," Murphy said.
Unlike Chinese garlic, Marlborough garlic is not kept in cool stores. Cooling garlic can dehydrate the bulbs and make them lose their juiciness.
Murphy said the challenge now facing local growers was being able to market their product effectively.
- NZPA
