Growers miss the boat on organic bonanza ...

By Philippa Stevenson

New Zealand's export apples would not be languishing in stores or in price if they had been grown organically, says independent exporter Freshco.

"If all the New Zealand apple crop was organic, you'd sell it overnight," said director John Mangan.

His company has exported 10,000 tonnes of organic produce in the past three years, and sales this year will exceed $12 million after growing 150 per cent since 1996.

He said the country's apple growers produce just 1.5 per cent of the global crop and a huge and growing demand for organic produce presented them with a significant opportunity.

This year, organically grown Braeburn apples could return growers $30 a carton.

The price for the conventionally grown variety has plummeted from a projected $11 to $16 a carton to $7 to $9 in markets awash with all types of fruit.

Mr Mangan said organic growing should be considered as part of a strategy for the industry's future.

Health issues including food safety were now a major driver of consumers' purchases. Organic production was, for instance, a guarantee that a product had no genetically modified inputs, he said.

A large British supermarket chain serving millions of customers had calculated that 20 per cent of its produce section could be organic and sell at a 15 per cent premium without slowing sales.

A 15 per cent premium at retail level equates to a 30 per cent premium to a grower.

Currently a third of Freshco's business is organically certified to some degree. Its target is to have 100 per cent certified under a system of environmentally sound growing practices within five years.

"If people don't go down this track, it won't be a question of what premiums they get but whether we will be able to sell it at all," said Mr Mangan.

The costs and risks involved in the three year conversion to organic growing ruled out a "kneejerk, this will save my bacon" attitude to making the switch.

"That is not the right way to look at it, because we want the best growers with the best land with the best varieties to add value to the higher value product."

Organic produce was like another apple variety and the best returns would come from the best fruit.

Mr Mangan said realistically up to six million cartons, or about a third of the national crop, could be organic.

"You'd easily get the premiums to justify growing it," he said.

However, New Zealand was in danger of missing the boat on the profitable alternative with many people still debating whether organic growing was a good idea. While the country only had 14,000ha of land in organic production, Argentina already had 200,000ha.

"We've got to do it. Forget about whether organics is good or not, the consumers in Europe and the United States think it is good, the rest of the world has said fine we'll go and do it but we sit back and say we think it is just a load of rubbish."

Mr Mangan said there had to be strategies to sustain growers during the two years before their produce could be certified organic.

This year the company was selling produce in a class which covers farms converting to organics but premiums were hard to get, particularly as a lot of similarly classed fruit was coming from Argentina.

Overseas governments were paying growers to convert to organics. Without some sort of assistance, growers here would simply have to spend money and take the risk.

He said tough times may prompt some to action "but I fear with a lot of them it will be too late, they won't be able to afford to."