RWNZ chief executive to step down
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) chief executive Gabrielle O’Brien will step down at the end of June.
The inability to bring in experienced overseas workers is one of the big difficulties for the potato industry as it heads into the next growing season amid COVID-19.
Third-generation grower Daniel Lovett, of Lovett Family Farms, near Ashburton, supplies potatoes for the McCain’s processing factory at Timaru. He also produces onions, carrots and other vegetables for other processors.
With more than 1000 ha, the farm employs 14 fulltime staff. At this time of year, the ground is being prepared for the new season and Lovett would normally also have four or five experienced overseas staff helping out.
He has employed three locals but says it is not the same as someone with experience of the modern million-dollar machines in use.
“It was great having overseas boys because they grew up with vegetables their whole life and they could jump on that machine and they knew how to operate and make it work, but that can’t happen this year,” he told Hort News.
“Harvest will be the tighter period; we’ll need more people then and so will every other farmer in Canterbury really.”
Meanwhile, Lovett says the industry is facing competition from cheap imports, particularly from Europe, where because of Covid-19, subsidised growers have lost their usual market – chips for restaurants and soccer crowds.
“I was talking to a guy in Holland last night and he said that there’s new potatoes being harvested in Europe at the moment, which are going straight to the cows.”
Some are also finding their way to New Zealand, despite calls from Potatoes New Zealand for a ban on cheap imports.
Lovett says supermarket shoppers should look at the labels on house-brand frozen chips before they buy.
“Hopefully, the general public will just keep asking where the fries are coming from.”
The potato processor McCain Foods describes Lovett as one of the many Canterbury growers it is proud to work with.
The Lovett farm alone produces more than 10% of the 550 million potatoes processed at McCain’s Timaru plant each year. Lovetts have supplied McCain since 2000.
McCain says that when it opened the plant in 1994, it was focused on forging strong relationships with New Zealand growers and has always underpinned its operations by growing “green and local.”
“McCain Foods’ success is grounded in the people we work with – and the reliability and dedication of our local growers like the Lovett family is a key part in that success,” says John Jackson, McCain Foods ANZ Agricultural Director.
“We’re proud to be bringing premium produce from our trusted New Zealand growers to supermarket freezer aisles. And we will continue to strengthen our bonds to our local communities to provide better outcomes for our customers and our growers.”
A subsidiary of a Canadian parent company, McCain Foods operates from sites in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, as well as Hawkes Bay and Timaru.
“We’ve encountered a vast amount of issues, from weather extremes, seedline issues, fertiliser trials, soil borne diseases, over/under production and the potato psyllid,” Lovett told Hort News. “But we have always been able to work through those problems with McCain’s team.”
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is claiming “some real success” on the 12 policy priorities it placed before the Coalition Government.
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Fast-track Approvals Bill introduced by the Coalition Government to enable a fast-track decision-making process for infrastructure and development projects.
The latest report from ANZ isn’t good news for sheep farmers: lamb returns are forecast to remain low.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.