THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
The case for fundamental change As I reflect on the past seven weeks, it has become obvious to me that as an industry, if we try to return to pre-Covid days, we will no longer lead the world in sustainable, fruit and vegetable production. By Nadine Tunley : HortNZ chief executive
In mid-September, I joined a Zoom call with counterparts in the United Kingdom’s horticulture industry. They are facing the same issues as us – labour, labour and labour – but on a far bigger scale. Over there, they need 70,000 to 80,000 seasonal workers but only have access to 30,000, albeit from more than 30 different countries. The size of this labour shortfall is escalating wages. For example, growers are having to pay up to £30 an hour to the workers harvesting broccoli. Packhouses are also in intense competition for staff, being 20% to 35% down in staff numbers. That’s seeing employers standing outside the gates of other companies, offering their staff incentives of up to a pound an hour if they swap employers. I share this brief outline of what is happening in the United Kingdom because I believe our industry has the chance to make sure the worst of what I have just described does not happen in New Zealand and have
a long term, negative impact. But to do that, we need to be serious about not returning to the good ol’, pre-Covid days – if we ever could. We must come together to find truly innovative ways to meet our challenges head on. In our favour, we have our industry’s track record of innovation. Indeed, I believe horticulture is the most innovative part of the food and fibre sector. This is because we’ve never been able to hide from consumer demands – not that we’ve ever wanted to – because our product goes from tree, vine or the ground straight into consumers’ mouths. It is our reputation for great taste, quality, health and food safety that has also earned us the price premiums and outright demand which New Zealand fruit and vegetables command in overseas markets. I also personally have no desire to eat imported produce and do not believe that
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AT WORK
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