Roadmap set to double hort exports by 2035
It's critical that the horticulture sector works together as part of a goal to double the sector’s exports by 2035.
Ups and downs in income are a tough issue for businesses in the primary sector.
Dairy industry highs and lows are a prime example of a problem with many causes; for primary industry exporters the main influence is offshore market conditions beyond the control of farmers and growers.
But for growers the whopper is biosecurity, the risk that looms large every week as new threats to our $5 billion business are found.
High profile horticultural biosecurity incursions threaten kiwifruit – look at the Psa disaster. Also threatened are tomatoes, capsicum, potatoes and tamarillos with the tomato potato psyllid, and of course fruit and Tau flies.
Growers face many more threats but they are left do the best they can.
When a biosecurity incursion strikes – such as finding a fruit fly in Auckland – there are two options. The best is eradication. It may cost a lot but it returns the industry to where it was before the incursion. Eradication is not often practicable. Managing the pest is the usual practice and that falls to the growers.
Every biosecurity challenge imposes enormous cost on growers and taxpayers. For example, during the Queensland fruit fly responses the taxpayer footed enormous one-off costs. In Grey Lynn it cost at least $1 million to eradicate each fruit fly.
But for growers the cost continues for as long as the pest or pathogen remains in NZ. Psa is a good example of this: the average cost per canopy hectare to manage Psa is $3000. That's an extra cost growers must pay from profits.
Then there will be the sneaky biosecurity incursion found one day in a paddock or orchard. No one knows where it came from, but there it is – a major problem. Growers and farmers have to mobilise to deal with such an incursion. A good example of this is velvetleaf.
Spraying is the first reaction, but it is neither an environmentally or financially sustainable solution. Innovative, research based and sustainable solutions are required.
At the time of writing the horticulture industry is waiting to find out whether the Environmental Protection Authority will approve the use of a biological control – a tiny wasp called Tamarixia – to fight the tomato potato psyllid. We are hoping the EPA will allow the industry to use this natural pest control method.
The more we can do to reduce this risk, the stronger our growth can be.
Join the conversation with us about biosecurity, or any other issue, via our Twitter account: @HorticultureNZ or directly to me @MikeChapmanHort.
• Mike Chapman is chief executive of HortNZ.
Following a recent overweight incursion that saw a Mid-Canterbury contractor cop a $12,150 fine, the rural contracting industry is calling time on what they consider to be outdated and unworkable regulations regarding weight and dimensions that they say are impeding their businesses.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says his officials plan to meet their US counterparts every month from now on to better understand how the 15% tariff issue there will play out, and try and get some certainty there for our exporters about the future.
A landmark New Zealand trial has confirmed what many farmers have long suspected - that strategic spring nitrogen use not only boosts pasture growth but delivers measurable gains in lamb growth and ewe condition.
It was recently announced that former MP and Southland farmer Eric Roy has stepped down of New Zealand Pork after seven years. Leo Argent talks with Eric about his time at the organisation and what the future may hold.
It's critical that the horticulture sector works together as part of a goal to double the sector’s exports by 2035.
RaboResearch, the research arm of specialist agriculture industry banker Rabobank, sees positives for the Alliance Group in its proposed majority-stake sale to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
OPINION: One particular bone the Hound has been gnawing on for years now is how the chattering classes want it…
OPINION: Our Aussie mates never miss a chance to put one over us, as seen in a recent op-ed by…