Latest news with #HortNZ
NZ Herald
19-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Young Grower of the Year 2025: Lydia Goodman wins Central Otago regional title
After moving to New Zealand, she shifted from cattle and crops to cherries, discovering a love for horticulture. 'I literally fell into it when I was a backpacker in Wānaka. 'My working visa was about to expire, it was post-Covid, and the industry was crying out for workers.' Goodman snapped up the Government's offer of Supplementary Seasonal Employer (SSE) visas and started work in a cherry orchard in Tarras. 'I just loved it, the outdoors work and the passion and leadership in the industry. 'I have been here ever since.' Now Goodman has five years of experience managing teams in orchard and packhouse operations and holds Level 3 and 4 Certificates in Fruit Production. She entered the Young Grower competition to develop her technical skills, build connections with like-minded professionals, and challenge herself. 'It was a great experience completing seven modules across the day, along with two practical components, and a speech in the evening. 'The big one for me was pruning a tree in front of two big names in the field.' Goodman, who manages a team of 12 RSE workers, as well as being a manager in the pack house, said she loved the outdoor work and the passion and leadership in the industry. 'One of the best things is teaching the team how to do their job, and seeing the passion develop as they learn and understand things like the physiology of a tree. 'That really fuels me.' Her ambition is to become a Central Otago cherry grower. Runners up were Jared Loewen from Roxburgh, who is redeveloping his family's orchard, Stone House Gardens, to improve productivity and sustainability; and Mackenzie Maaka from Cromwell, who is studying Level 4 Horticultural Fruit Production at a polytechnic. The Young Grower of the Year competition celebrates the success of young people in the industry and encourages others to consider a career in horticulture. Local organisers host and run the regional competitions independently, with Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) hosting the final in a different part of the country each year. Entry is open to both commercial fruit and vegetable growers from across the regions, up to the age of 30. HortNZ chief executive Kate Scott said the competitions played an important role in highlighting the wide variety of career opportunities in the industry. 'The regional Young Grower competitions and the national Young Grower of the Year final could not happen without the commitment of so many industry professionals across the country who give up their time to help organise them,' Scott said. 'Thanks to their dedication, we can celebrate the skilled young people we have pursuing careers in the sector and raise awareness of those career opportunities to others.'
NZ Herald
16-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Why New Zealand's fresh vegetable prices may spike without National Direction for Vegetables
It has warned that without such action, and as a result of proposed regulations aimed at reducing nitrogen run-off, fresh vegetable prices would rise sharply. I used an options analysis approach to compare and contrast the various options. This was the vehicle that led me, as an independent economist, to support HortNZ's approach. The report has demonstrated that a National Direction is both needed and viable, underpinned by the importance of domestic vegetable production for New Zealanders. It has also highlighted that the way the National Policy Statement for Freshwater (NPS-FM) is being interpreted and translated into freshwater regulations by councils could severely impact vegetable production, leading to price increases. I tested HortNZ's concerns over potential price rises by taking broccoli prices for the last 10 years and calculating what prices would be if vegetable production had been restricted by 20% over that time. This would have meant broccoli rising as high as $27 a kilo, or about $9 a head. When informing strategy for biological industries, it is essential to have a strong understanding of the finer details. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Durable legislation requires an understanding of how such businesses go about these activities. Without that, you cannot understand the impacts of policy. It's also important to recognise that commercial vegetable production in this country has some unusual characteristics. New Zealand cannot import fresh vegetables at the reasonable prices we have at the moment. Climate, soils and topography mean there are only a certain number of specific areas where production can occur, so these supply the entire country. The report examined the options for freshwater management associated with commercial vegetable production (CVP) and the economic implications of proposed regional regulations. It looked into the importance of CVP, the regulatory framework and contaminant measurement approaches adopted by councils and what the unintended consequences would be of restricting vegetable production. It outlined how, for CVP to continue to grow and meet the needs of New Zealanders, priority needs to be provided for vegetable growing. This will mean giving CVP priority allocation of the nitrogen contaminant load within the freshwater limits, supplemented with action plans, to meet targeted freshwater outcomes. The NPS-FM can be largely retained. However, greater specificity around priorities for human health, including vegetable production, needs to be provided to ensure councils take a consistent approach to applying public good priorities. Legislation also needs to allow current and new vegetable production to be a permitted activity within a freshwater farm plan. Growers often move growing from one piece of leased land to another. Putting regulatory barriers in the way of typical industry practice is problematic – vegetable farming should not need a consent. Where bottom lines are unlikely to be met by freshwater limits alone, action plans could be drawn up that work towards meeting those. This could be achieved by a mixing of local solutions in specific areas and the central government, but it would also need to be resourced by the central government. Following a Good Agricultural Practice Environment Management System Add-on (GAP EMS) framework would assure the safe and sustainable production of vegetables, focused on maintaining production and reducing the impact of nitrogen leaching and sediment discharges. What is required is a mixture of top-down and bottom-up approaches. We absolutely need a national freshwater plan, but we cannot ignore the implications of restricting vegetable production and what that would mean for New Zealanders. Most businesses need certainty about where they are in terms of lead-in times, but that is particularly important where biological processes are involved. Vegetable growers are currently having to consider whether regulations will allow them to grow vegetables. I would argue that there is a need to put vegetables front and centre. New Zealand needs a durable policy approach to this, one that does not need revisiting year after year – because if only some kind of side deal is achieved then there will be cost implications and consumers will have to pay higher prices.
NZ Herald
29-04-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Pukekohe's Fong family marks 75 years of vegetable growing, calls for Govt support for sector
HortNZ is calling for the development of a National Environmental Standard to make vegetable production a permitted activity, provided growers are operating to good management practices. Climate and soils limit the areas where production can occur. HortNZ has warned that without a standard, production will be restricted and there will be a steep increase in vegetable prices. Fong pointed to 1943 as an example, when the Government recognised the importance of commercial vegetable producers, including the many Chinese growers, to feeding troops and the country in wartime. At the suggestion of Prime Minister Peter Fraser, the New Zealand Chinese Federation of Growers (NZCFG) was formed. Chinese market gardeners upped their vegetable production dramatically to meet the need. Today, the NZCFG, the world's only national Chinese growers' organisation, continues supporting members and agricultural technology and promoting sustainable farming. They are continuing a proud tradition. Chinese growers in New Zealand have played a pioneering role in introducing diverse vegetable varieties such as bok choy, daikon, and bitter melon, which were once rare but are now staples in many Kiwi kitchens. Fong said that as growers faced proposed regulations aimed at reducing nitrogen run-off, recognising the importance of commercial vegetable producers was as critical as ever. 'Vegetable growers believe in what we do and the importance of our role in keeping fresh vegetables on the tables of every New Zealand household,' he said. 'To support a healthy population, growers need to have healthy businesses, and the increased costs of growing vegetables has an impact on our ability to grow and supply fresh vegetables to consumers. 'Vegetable growers are price takers and are really vulnerable to the effects of supply and demand. 'This last season has been really tough.' He said vegetable growers were accustomed to adapting to change. In 1950, his father, Goon Fong, began farming with his father, and in 1960 he bought about 5.5 hectares of land in Pukekohe, which he leased to his father's partnership – going solo to grow on it himself from 1963. Allan joined the family business in 1976. After his father's death in 1993, he and his mother also began growing tomatoes and cucumbers. Colin joined the operation, and they expanded their range. In 2000, Allan and fellow Pukekohe grower Raymond Jivan visited the United States and saw the growing popularity of mesclun-type salads. They formed a joint-venture partnership to produce baby leaf salads. Today, the Fongs employ 80 permanent staff and have continued to innovate. They specialise in a growing range of crops including a variety of cos lettuce, stem broccoli, stem cauliflower, coriander, baby spinach and a variety of Asia greens. Fong said it was a major change from their main crops of the past, such as beetroot, silverbeet, leeks and spinach, but there is a limit to how much commercial growers can continue to adapt without Government support. 'Any decisions that make it harder to access land and space to grow impact how much we can produce, and the price at which people buy their vegetables increases. 'I worry about the impacts on supply, prices to growers and consumers and our resilience if we do not have the land available to grow on. 'What will happen to the supply if we have weather events but no resilience? 'We, like other vegetable growers, work really hard to grow the best quality produce and manage our impacts. 'We have new tools available like the Sustainable Vegetable Systems tool and Codes of Practice, which help us make good decisions and manage our environmental impact. 'We can only do this work when we have a healthy business.'
