Wairoa Mayor: Road upgrades between Napier and Wairoa will boost safety and accessibility
The road between Napier and Wairoa is on the mend.
One of the country’s two largest supermarket chains is reporting that for the first time since the disruption of Covid, they have largely full supply on almost all fruit and vegetables grown locally.
Woolworths has told Horticulture NZ conference in Tauranga that with an extended period of settled and warmer growing conditions this year, we find ourselves in a market of plentiful supply.
Woolworths head of vegetable and hort buying team, Glenn Bewly noted that the supply and demand equation can be a difficult balance to get right, especially with the external pressures of a subdued economy.
He told the conference that a recent survey conducted by IPSOS NZ found that the ‘cost of living’ was comfortably the single most significant issue that customers faced today.
“While we have recently seen RBNZ starting to reduce the cash rate and a shift for the wider market from inflation to deflation, we can expect that cost-of-living pressures will continue to be felt for some time.
“With value seeking behaviour at record highs, the ability to bring value to customers is essential. And with growers benefiting from higher yields and good quality turnout, this has helped to deliver some fantastic value for retail customers.
“Customers have reacted well and collectively we have seen examples of record-breaking volumes,” Bewly says.
He pointed out, however, that there has been an ongoing challenge of driving consumption to a point that consistently allows for demand to come up to a high enough level to meet that of supply.
“This has made for a challenging market. We are collectively working to grow consumption levels of fruit and veg.
“We continue to be focused on delivering value, quality and freshness for Kiwis across NZ. If consumers have a fantastic experience, we know they are more likely to consume and buy more.”
Earlier this year Woolworths opened its second fresh produce state of the art distribution centre.
Bewly says this completed Woolworths’ national coverage for delivering fruit and vegetables for their store network – allowing them to handle with care and have the appropriate temperature controls to maximise freshness and quality for customers.
“We know our customers react positively to this, with a noticeable positive step change in our customer feedback in the South Island following our Christchurch DC opening.
“We continue to invest in upskilling our produce team, through our program known as Cultivate. We are also focused on driving passion across our wider business, through ‘The Fresh Commitment’, a workstream focused on driving passion across our teams in store, in our DC’s and across support offices, empowering staff to never walk past fresh products which they themselves would not be happy buying.”
Woolworths is also rolling out chilled front of store displays, allowing them to display in season products such as strawberries at the front of the store - helping to maximise quality for the end consumer.
“We know for highly temperature sensitive lines spending time outside of a chilled environment can have a detrimental effect on shelf life,” says Bewly.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.
OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).
The 2024-25 season apple harvest has “well and truly exceeded expectations”, says Apples and Pears NZ chief executive Karen Morrish.
Through collaborative efforts with exhibitors, visitors, and industry partners, Fieldays says it is reaffirming its commitment to environmental responsibility with new initiatives for 2025.
Fonterra has announced a record forecast opening organic milk price of $12.30/kgMS for the new season.
OPINION: The Greens aren’t serious people when it comes to the economy, so let’s not spend too much on their…
OPINION: PM Chris Luxon is getting pinged lately for rolling out the old 'we're still a new government' line when…