Vege growers must join together for survival: federation

By GLENYS CHRISTIAN

Vegetable growers coming out of a tough season have been given a tough message by the president of the Vegetable Growers Federation, Brian Gargiulo.

"The days of the individual grower are numbered," he said at a Pukekohe seminar on Friday.

While they might still believe their industry was just the victim of cyclical price swings, pressures to get larger could be withstood for only a few more years at most.

Growers in Third World countries were busy supplying the same vegetable crops.

"They live in one-room shacks and you want to drive Rollers," he told growers.

Asked by one what changes there would be over the next five years, Mr Gargiulo said the same changes which had occurred would happen even more rapidly.

"Ninety-eight per cent of the carrots produced in the United States come from one grower," he said.

"Fifty per cent of the salad vegetables come from one grower and packer who ships them all round the country."

Looking at a similar scenario in New Zealand, that could mean the entire local tomato crop being supplied by just seven tomato growers, which would allow the produce buyers from large supermarket chains, "to play golf with no problems."

He was quick to note that corporate farming had not so far enjoyed success here.

"But we are going to have to find ways of joining together," he said.

Onion exporter Martin Tribe believes cooperatives are the way to go in order to bring growers and exporters closer together.

He talked of strategic alliances, contracts and shipping plans, then went further to suggest formalised arrangements such as export licences or even a single seller.

Pukekohe accountant Rob Saunders, whose advice is sometimes called on by growers, took a somewhat cynical view. It would take growers several years to talk about getting together and another market downturn before they would, he suggested.

But sheep and beef farmer Bruce Blomfield gave the most salient advice from a sector which has been there, debated the subject to death, then finally got on with the action.

"Farmers are very independent and inclined to bury their heads in the sand," he said.

"But you may have to accept the fact that what you've done for the last 25 years is no longer viable."

In his case, a brutally honest assessment of his situation five years ago led him to put on a suit and set to work giving financial planning advice to his counterparts.

He and his wife, Joanna, had spent many years building up their 235ha farm at Waikaretu.

"But we were getting nowhere financially," he said.

Now he spends much of the week in and out of the office, while day-to-day management of the farm, which carries 1000 ewes and 250 head of cattle, is handled by his wife, who also works as a part-time teacher aide at the local school.

Mr Blomfield said farmers needed market intelligence as well as the cooperation required to effectively make use of it.

"Change is what our industry is all about."

"We have all got the resources and can change. We should do so."

* Glenys Christian can be contacted on e-mail at glenys@farmindex.co.nz