Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / David Hadfield: Process Vegetables New Zealand Chair on Wattie's plan to axe the production of frozen vegetables

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David Hadfield: Process Vegetables New Zealand Chair on Wattie's plan to axe the production of frozen vegetables · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What happens to the vegie growers? What is looking to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: act production of its frozen vegetables, plans to shut three facilities,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty jobs on the line, High costs,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: tough manufacturing environment to blame it. David Hadfield is chair
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of Processed Vegetables New Zealand with me Live this morning. Morning,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: David Morning, What happens to the contracts with growers?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, well, contracts are annual, so this current year's contracts.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Pea harvest has just finished, beans are underway, characters are
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: still to happen, So it'll be next season that it
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: will affect us because normally in May through the June
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: July the what he's reps are out around seeing growers
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: and signing up for the next season. But they will
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: have grown p seed for next season, so that's probably
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: sitting in a grain store at the stage unless that
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: let those guys no earlier than this, but I doubt
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: they would have because it would have got out if
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: bed had to happen.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: So what happens to that and what happens to the growers?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: The growers now are going to have to lock for
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: other crop options. Process peas and beans were a good
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: restorative crop and their rotation on an arable farm. So
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: now they'll be looking for other restorative crops to put
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: in its place. There will be some pea seed in
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: peace for the feed industry contracts around. But he's a
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: difficult decision for some growers because they rely on the
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: cash flow of the process crop, mainly because you paid.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: It's a ninety to one hundred and ten day crop
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: and you're paid in the month after its harvesters and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: you don't have to We didn't have to pay the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: harvest cost that was covered at as part of the
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: wadi's contract.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: And a harvesting is obviously a lot more expensive now
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the price of picture oil's going the way it is. David,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: what happens? What can you give us an idea of
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the financial impact for growers of this.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Well, it's one crop and a rotation that pays around
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: what an average crop would be so and generally most
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: growers it's one peddic of peas or you know, a
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: pedica peace and a peddic of beans. So they'll replace
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: it with another crop. But it's most of the cash
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: flow implication more than they replacing the crop, right, and
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of crops. We don't get paid for months
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: after harvest. For as far as molling wheat, it could
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: be eighteen months after you've planted the crop before you're
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: actually getting paid the crops. It's short term three months
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: growing season and paid in month four.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: What's going on here? Is this? What's thing? Or we're
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: not eating beans and peas, we're.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Not eating as much. New Zealand vegetable consumptions dropping. New
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Zealand does need to eat more vegetables because it's a good,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: healthy product. It's going to put a burden on the
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: health system if they don't eat more healthy, fresh and
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: frozen vegetables. But there is a lot of important product
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: coming in and that is affecting us.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I was reading at the end of last year. There
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: were lots of stories around about this. Do you think
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that's part of the problem here?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: It is, it's definitely part of the problem. Yeah. New Zealand.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: We grow some of the best and highest yuring processed
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: crops in the world. But the cost of production, and
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: that's not only the fuel costs and fertilizer costs and
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: chemical costs, it's also the regular literary costs on us
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: to actually grow crops. Now it's quite prohibitive and quite
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: time consuming doing the paperwork.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean that we will grow less
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: of them?
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, there's still New Zealand growing process crops going to
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: be available through McCain Foods and Hawks Bay and Telly's
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: an experton which I suggest that New Zealanders need to
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: hunt out the packaging and the supermarket look at where
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: it's growing, not where it's packaged, because quite often the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: imported product is coming in in bulk and then packaged
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: in New Zealand. We need to look at actually where
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: it's growing.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Roger and that David appreciates that. That's David Hadfield, their
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Chair of Process Vegetables, New Zealand. For more from Early
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks at
• 5:06
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• 5:09
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