HortNZ Board Election 2025: Growers urged to vote before 10 July deadline
Commercial fruit and vegetable growers are being encouraged to cast their votes in the Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) board directors' election.
Supermarkets shouldn't be seen as villians when it comes to competition and returns in the retail sector, says former Horticulture NZ chief executive Mike Chapman.
He says supermarkets are a core part of our business.
"Without the supermarket, we don't sell," he told Rural News.
"It's not about saying you've done bad or you've done good, it's about how we can change the dynamics for the future," he says.</p.
Chapman says the recent Commerce Commission review into supermarkets provides an opportunity where the whole supply chain - retailers, distributors and growers - all have a fair share.
"We are looking for a positive outcome where consumers and growers can get the deal they deserve," he says.
Chapman supports a code of conduct for fresh produce and believes there's wide support for a code within the sector.
The Commerce Commission has released its report after reviewing competition in the $22 billion a year grocery industry. It found Foodstuffs and Woolworths duopoly is making super-profits - in excess of 20% return on their capital - at the expense of both food suppliers and customers.
The Government is inviting submissions from stakeholders on the commission’s report before deciding how it will try to improve competition.
Opening the HortNZ Conference in Hamilton, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor assured fruit and vegetable growers that the Government will uphold their interests.
He pointed out that sponsorship doesn’t give supermarkets right to suppression.
“We have healthy comp across economy in all areas of supply and demand ad its Commerce Commission’s role to ensure that”.
Countdown was a platinum sponsor of conference.
Foodstuffs and Woolworths have cornered 90% of the grocery market through owning all of NZ's biggest supermarket brands – New World, Pak'nSave, Countdown, Four Square and Supervalue.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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