Tomatoes New Zealand Incorporated launches!

From 1 April, the start of a new financial year, all of Tomatoes New Zealand’s business will be conducted under the new “Tomatoes New Zealand Incorporated” structure.

TomatoesNZ member are unlikely to notice any changes, since TomatoesNZ Inc. will continue with the same functions, personnel and physical location. TomatoesNZ Inc. have an agreement with Horticulture New Zealand to continue providing the management, secretarial, administration, financial and levy collection services as they have done for TomatoesNZ.

The fresh tomato levy will continue to be collected by Horticulture New Zealand on TomatoesNZ Inc.’s behalf until the current levy order expires in 2019. We will be consulting with growers during 2018 on a new levy to fund Tomatoes NZ Inc. which will be separate from the Horticulture New Zealand levy.  

Thank you to the many of you that have already completed the TomatoesNZ Inc. membership application form. If you have not yet done so, I urge you to go to our website tomatoesnz.co.nz and complete the online form.

Thank you for your support

Thank you to the many of you that responded to our requests to “have your say” on both the Tamarixia bio control agent application and the Irradiated Food Labelling Review.

The EPA will now review all the submissions on the Tamarixia application plus produce their own report, all of which will then go to the EPA’s Decision Making Panel. We are expecting the hearing will be held on the 3^rd and 4^th of May in Wellington.

FSANZ is reporting back on the irradiated food labelling review to the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation late this year and may or may not publish the review report. So it will probably not be until next year that we hear the outcome of the review.

Submission made on registering Microbial “Agrichemicals”

Last month TomatoesNZ made a submission to MPI on their proposed “Information requirements for registration of a microbial organism used as an agricultural chemical”.  We are concerned that the proposal makes it more difficult than necessary to register microbial compounds.

Biological pest control options including microbial compounds are very important to future successful and profitable tomato production in a greenhouse environment. This is because microbial agricultural chemical organisms generally have:

•          Short withholding periods with no residues - allowing quick access to the domestic and many export markets;

•          Short re-entry intervals which are in line with picking cycles (i.e. every 1 to 2 days);

•          A low impact on beneficial organisms used as part of integrated pest management programs, which is an essential part of greenhouse tomato production.

In our submission we said that the registration requirements should:

•          Be consistent internationally;

•          Be cost effective and straightforward to encourage more registrations; and,

• Provide comprehensive definitions that are consistent with other MPI standards.

We also said that these products should be called microbial compounds, not microbial chemicals, to more accurately reflect their content.

Conference 2016

We are excited to confirm that our international guest speaker for conference this year is Michael Bledsoe, Ph.D. Village Farms International, VP Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs.

Village Farms International is one of the largest producers of premium quality greenhouse tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers in North America, owning and operating seven greenhouse facilities in British Columbia and Texas.

Michael has been involved in agriculture for over 40 years, the first 22 with crop protection firm Valent USA, and the last 18 years with Village Farms.  Michael’s Ph.D. is in Entomology and he has managed all of the new minor use greenhouse product registrations for the US, and serves on the Canadian minor use program for greenhouses.

The TomatoesNZ Inc. annual general meeting and conference will be held in Nelson on the 3^rd of August, as part of the Horticulture conference (3^th -5^th August). We will again be covering the costs of registration and a contribution towards travel for a limited number of members who wish to attend conference on a first-in-first served basis. More details to come over the next couple of months. So save the 3^rd – 5^th August dates in your diary.

Market access requests

Growing exports is the key to growing the sector’s value and moving volumes of product off-shore during the peak season, and TomatoesNZ, with the assistance of Market Access Solutionz Ltd, is continually working on making sure that fresh tomato exporters can maintain and grow access to Asian markets in particular.

This season we have worked with exporters and MPI on implementing market access requirements for Thailand; ensuring export systems meet will meet new market requirements for Japan; and discussing potential access to Vietnam. 

TomatoesNZ has for many years had market access requests in for China and Korea.

MPI, through the Plants Market Access Council recently “upped the stakes” for sectors that want them to negotiate access to “new” markets. Market access requests will now be prioritised according to a list of criteria, instead of on a “first in first served” basis.

We have had to provide a more detailed assessment of the market potential in China and Korea, plus the potential benefits to the industry and NZ of gaining that access.  TomatoesNZ funded a preliminary market assessment for China to assist with this, and we are now waiting to hear the outcome of the prioritisation process.