Wednesday, 24 October 2012 14:23

Bleak ‘horizon’ painted for Hort

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HORTICULTURE NEW Zealand has gone on the offensive against Horizons Regional Council’s One Plan with a cover story in its NZ Grower magazine predicting a bleak future for the sector unless significant changes are made to the plan.

HortNZ and Federated Farmers have lodged appeals against One Plan in the High Court in an attempt to reverse some of the decisions made by the Environment Court.

NZ Grower quotes HortNZ’s resource management planner Lynnette Wharfe saying the plan, as it stands, has serious consequences for growers. She says some growers may be unable to obtain a resource consent within which they can operate or the consent process will be so complicated and costly they will not be able to continue in business. Wharfe says this could have major downstream effects including limiting Horizons growers to compete with growers from other regions and seriously impacting the flexibility of rotational growing systems. 

Wharfe claims the One Plan could limit the availability of vegetables and or push up their cost and have economic impacts on towns such as Levin. She says it could affect land prices and have flow on effects to other rural service industries.

HortNZ says it does not believe that the Environment Court adequately considered issues related to horticulture, hence its appeal to the High Court.

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