Green MP impressed by Pukekohe growers

NZVeg, the Pukekohe Vegetable Growers’ Association, and Te Tautara Trust hosted Green MP, Steve Abel in Pukekohe on Tuesday 8 September.

This was an opportunity for Steve – who has a science background – to learn more about vegetable growing in New Zealand, as part of the vegetable sector’s strategy to achieve a bi-partisan, national approach to vegetable production in New Zealand, so growers have more certainty, the country has food security, and New Zealanders have better access to healthy, affordable food.

Steve is very supportive of New Zealand having a food strategy as well as an energy strategy. He was impressed by the efficiency of greenhouse food production, and how CO2 increases production by approximately 30%. He heard loud and clear that the greenhouse sector needs more certainty around energy. ‘We need abundant and affordable energy to the gate. We can work the rest out,’ Steve was told by a greenhouse grower. 

Steve was impressed by all the actions Pukekohe growers are taking to ‘produce more with less, working with mana whenua on smarter ways of producing food with better environmental outcomes’.

Steve saw many of the actions firsthand – either on the Te Ahikawariki research farm or in the paddock. Namely, established and new riparian planting, setbacks, silt traps, cover crops, and integrated pest management in action – sunflowers attracting beneficial insects to a commercial potato crop.

He was genuinely wowed by how Pukekohe’s soil makeup, free draining land, and climate support vegetable growing – including storage – in the most efficient way possible. For example, storing potatoes underground until the market is ready for them and planting potatoes as early as late May, because there are no frosts.

To round out the day, Steve learned more about the dynamics of the market. ‘No grower dictates the price they receive for their produce. We are all price takers,’ he was told at the same time that doubt was expressed about the effectiveness of another supermarket business.