Hort Talk with Mike Chapman HorticultureNZ CEO

Our industry’s contribution to the Covid recovery would seem as simple of providing fresh, healthy-grown local vegetables and fruit. But since we emerged from lockdown, this has become much more difficult and can no longer be assured. Recent price increases for vegetables are a very graphic reminder that things are not what they were.

During the Covid lockdown, one-third of all outlets for fruit and vegetables were closed: restaurants, independent fruit and vegetable retailers, and farmers’ markets. The growers who supplied these outlets either had nowhere to sell or could not sell all their crops. Their response was to cut back on planting because, why would you grow what you couldn’t sell? Plus in winter, growing is much slower and so filling shortages is not quick.

Uncertainty

There is also the issue of labour supply: both permanent and seasonal workers. After Covid struck, around 2000 New Zealanders were redeployed into horticulture to help with harvest. But going forward, there is no certainty that there will be sufficient workers. The horticulture industry relies on Recognised Seasonal Employer seasonal workers from the Pacific as well as NZ seasonal workers for harvest and pruning. These workers used to be topped up by backpackers on working holidays. We know backpackers will not be available in the coming season. We are also not certain that there will be enough RSE workers remaining in NZ or able to get to and from NZ. This creates uncertainty. If you’re not sure you can harvest your crops, you will not plant them. We do have programmes running to attract and redeploy New Zealanders but, will enough New Zealanders make the change in occupation?

Uncertainty about where you are going to sell your produce, and where you are going to get your labour from results in fewer crops being planted. That in turn results in fewer vegetables being available and at higher prices. The only way to break this cycle is to create certainty. Consumers need to buy more healthy fresh food and our labour programmes need to deliver a stable workforce. With certainty will come planting, sufficient supply of vegetables and fruit, and reasonable prices.

Recovery strategy

To address these concerns the horticulture industry has collectively developed a Covid recovery strategy. Its goal is to work collectively in partnership with the Government to provide the certainty that growers need to keep planting and keep expanding horticulture, to help NZ recover from Covid. This strategy will have to be an industry-led, government-enabled partnership if it is to succeed.

Collectively, we have set ourselves the challenge to make a real contribution to NZ’s Covid recovery, and have put in place a plan to ensure our success.