Fruit on display at the conference. Photo / RNZ, Monique Steele
By Monique Steele of RNZ
The who’s who of New Zealand’s fruit and vegetable sector are convening in the capital this week to bite into the challenges facing horticulture.
More than 800 produce companies, growers, regulators and government officials attended the two-day horticulture and RSE conferences in Wellington that opened on Tuesday.
Sector wins this past year were celebrated, such as the predicted record export revenue of more than $8.4 billion in the year to June and large-scale water storage projects in the works.
But challenges growers faced featured too, such as adverse weather, including the recent floods in the top of the South Island and unstable commercial energy supplies.
Kate Scott, chief executive of levy-funded industry group Horticulture New Zealand, opened the event and said growers have had to be resilient this year.
“If there’s one word that sums up the past year in New Zealand horticulture, it’s resilience.
“Resilience in the way growers have recovered from adverse events, resilience in the face of rising costs, regulatory reform, biosecurity threats and the ongoing and unpredictable issues that arise every day when we’re growing food for New Zealand and the world.”
A new implementation roadmap, part of the Aotearoa Horticulture Action Plan, first launched in 2023, was released on Tuesday for the next two years.
The sector-wide plan set out 24 key priority areas, 56 outcomes and 76 actions to help the sector grow sustainably, optimise value, improve Māori horticulture engagement, harness science and technology, and nurture its people.
Associate Agriculture Minister responsible for horticulture, Nicola Grigg, said she had high expectations for uptake of the plan by growers.
“While in government, we certainly do have a role to play in it being successful, I do want to be very clear that it is on you to make it successful.”
She said the Government was determined to address the “broken” Resource Management Act (RMA) system, and to cut red tape and regulatory burden for farmers.
“Our old foe, the RMA. We want our regulatory settings to have a default of ‘yes’ rather than ‘no’.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said farmers she had spoken to were concerned that while the RMA reforms were being carried out, they were operating without a consent.
“We’re very conscious of that, and you’ve been top of mind for us and our RMA reforms, because we can’t actually contemplate a world in which a government would literally turn around to New Zealanders and say, ‘sorry, we’re not consenting the growing of vegetables in New Zealand, because we think it’s bad for the environment’.”
“That doesn’t make sense.
“It would be a lot worse for the New Zealand environment if Kiwis couldn’t access fresh, locally grown vegetables.
“So our values on that issue are clear, and we are very conscious of the need to ensure that you face a stable, certain consenting environment.”
Willis said the investment boost policy aimed to reward farmers through the tax system for efforts to increase production, as investing capital made businesses more resilient.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford spoke at the conference, but the media were barred from attending the closed sessions regarding the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.
Jim Haworth, chief executive of Peak Global Holdings, told the event online shopping had become the new default for consumers who wanted convenience.
“Consumers expect to shop when and where they want.”
Australian consultant Tristan Kitchener said New Zealand was the most price-sensitive market among Western nations.
In light of the cost-of-living crisis, he said consumers were “trading down” and hunting promotions, which retailers like German-owned value supermarket giant Aldi in Australia were capitalising on, which drove down prices overall.
The Commerce Commission’s grocery commissioner, Pierre van Heerden, said supermarket margins had continued to grow over the long term, but slowed recently.
He said the grocery code excluded the relationship between suppliers and wholesalers, which it was looking into.
Van Heerden urged growers to share their experiences with supermarket and wholesale buyers by contacting the commission.
The Horticulture New Zealand annual general meeting raised more than $18 million in revenue in the year to March, including from grower levies, resulting in a surplus of $1.2m after tax, up from $421,822 last year.
However, it expected a deficit in the next financial year.
Growers voted to increase directors and president remuneration by 2.2%, taking the president role to more than $90,000.
It has had two new executive officers since last year and a new chief executive with the departure of Nadine Tunley and president Barry O’Neil.
The advocacy group made 49 submissions to local and central government.
- RNZ