Vegetable growers in one of the main horticultural regions, Hawkes Bay, say they do not share the concerns of their orcharding colleagues about a merger of the two sectors' industry lobbies.
Fruit and vegetable growers unanimously supported the idea of a new horticulture grower body, Horticulture New Zealand, at the Fruitgrowers'
Federation and Vegfed conferences held in Auckland.
But fruitgrower leaders in Hawkes Bay have some concerns about the state of their own industry and the merger proposal itself.
Pipfruit Growers chief Phil Alison and fruitgrowers' association president Jonathan Wiltshire believed the philosophy, purpose and direction of the new organisation needed to be worked out before the body was formed, not after, as originally proposed.
Many of their concerns were eased by a note to the conference remit spelling out what an establishment team linking fruitgrowers to the wider body needed to do before it happened.
The proposal is to establish Horticulture New Zealand to deal with industry-wide issues such as biosecurity, education and training, compliance costs, trade and market access, labour issues and environmental issues such as resource management plans and water use and availability.
Vegfed Hawkes Bay chairman Michael Hill said change always caused concern but he saw the merger plan as a positive move "as long we take care with the details of the new organisation".
Vegfed and the Fruitgrowers' Federation chief executive Peter Silcock said the horticulture industry had sales of $4 billion, grew 130,000ha of crops and was a significant contributor to regional development and jobs.
"Growers have supported the proposal in principle because they have recognised the need for an empowered and influential organisation that will combine and build on the activities for the Fruitgrowers' Federation and Vegfed. It is now up to us to further develop the detail," he said.
"Conference delegates emphasised to us the importance of further consultation with and the involvement of growers and other industry bodies, especially the product-specific fruit and vegetable groups in the development of the proposal."
- NZPA
