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New Zealand’s vegetable industry is urging the government to make commercial vegetable production a “priority of national importance” in its impending freshwater regulations.

Government considers national direction on fresh water as he moves forward with reforms the Resource Management Act and amendments to the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management (NPS FM).

The NPS FM has gone through a number of iterations since its introduction in 2011 – and the latest version in 2020 was one of four national guidance elements for New Zealand’s freshwater management.

However, a new report from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research – commissioned by industry group Horticulture New Zealand – says a new approach to national freshwater policies is needed as current rules limit production vegetable commercial.

THE Economic case for market gardening in New Zealand The report warns that without specific national guidance for vegetables, consumer prices for fresh produce would skyrocket due to reduced supply and continued demand to feed New Zealand.

Hort NZ general manager of strategy and policy Michelle Sands said 80 per cent of vegetables grown in New Zealand were for the domestic market and not for export as is the case for some other primary sectors.

“The difference in consequences for vegetable production compared to other activities, which are also subject to complex rules, concerns the consequences for New Zealand. Because unlike the rest of the primary industry – meat, dairy, apples, kiwis – which is mainly intended for export, the market gardening industry production is intended mainly for a domestic market.

“So if we limit our supply, we won’t be able to meet New Zealand consumer demand and soaring prices,” she said.

The report said the price of broccoli could reach $9 per person if production was reduced by 20 percent following proposed regulations to reduce nitrogen runoff.

Sands said to avoid this, the government must prioritize commercial vegetable growing, as the vegetable supply must not be jeopardized.

“As the Government prepares to change fresh water regulations, we encourage them to go further and faster to safeguard the small but irreplaceable commercial vegetable sector to provide a secure supply of healthy and affordable vegetables .”

The report echoes warnings that the sector would shrink under current rules.

“The impact on vegetable production is not proportional to the national importance of vegetable production,” the report’s authors said.

“The different rules that have been developed and implemented in different watersheds under the NPS FM 2014/2017 will significantly reduce vegetable production and it is not clear that under the implementation of the NPS FM (2020 ), there is sufficient guidance around national priorities for this. tendency to change.

Regional effects

National directions around fresh water influenced regional land use rules, many of which, the report said, “created costs and uncertainty and (made) vegetable production unviable or marginal in some areas.” regions”.

He said councils generally controlled nitrogen through general rules limiting nitrogen production per hectare – and were “agnostic about the contribution of different land uses to national priorities”.

The authors said that although vegetables had relatively high nitrogen leaching, their contribution to the total watershed load was “generally small” compared to other land use activities.

Under the RMA, contaminant discharge quotas were allocated without reference to national priorities.

Sands said regional councils needed to consider trade-offs between the local effects of land use and the national importance of a stable vegetable supply – and that restricting vegetable production was an unintended consequence.

The report says the regional council’s proposed rules, like the planned changes in Waikato and Horowhenua, illustrate that vegetable growing does not have a “permissible avenue of activity”, compared to other agricultural activities like l pastoral agriculture.

“If market garden production does not benefit from national recognition, regional fresh water planning rules… risk reducing commercial market garden production… And this, despite the importance of the national supply of vegetables (a significant cost to human health) and the low contribution of market gardening to the nitrogen load of most watersheds,” the report states.

Sands said certainty around national regulations would give local decision-makers better guidance on how to manage the allocation of natural resources.

The National Party made an election promise to make vegetable growing a permitted activity under the RMA within a year – but Sands said this issue had not been addressed in the water reforms gentle and that no commitment had yet been made.

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