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Fresh Tomato Product Group update for December

2009-12-08

Imports

In September imports were 466,191kgs with a CIF value of $1.19 million, compared to September 2008 with 758,350kgs and a CIF value of $2.16 million.

 

To the end of September 2009; i.e. for the period May to September 2,840,449kgs of tomatoes with a CIF value of $7.9 million have been imported. For the same period to the end of September last year the volume was almost the same at 2,893,747kgs with a CIF value of $8.39 million.

 

At the time of writing imports have continued up into the early part of November.

 

Exports

Exports of NZ tomatoes to Australia commenced in the second week of November with about 150 tonnes sent away after a concerted effort from growers to meet an early hot weather window of demand (40 degree days) in Victoria & South Australia.

 

Capsicum exports for a particular type commenced in September to Australia and under the old emergency measures regime. The new and changed conditions for export to Australia are providing benefits to both tomato and capsicum growers.

 

The year in perspective

Since the discovery of the bacteria carried by the psyllid insect and the insect itself in May last year, NZ tomato growers have been through a very difficult time from a production, quality and economic point of view. That difficult market situation has continued through this year. Growers were hoping for a positive start to the new summer season but the indications in November are not that good.

 

Some words on the last 20 years.

The past 20 years has been a fascinating period of change, development and innovation in an industry that is made up of growers with no real history of tradition or politics in the vegetable growing business in this country.

 

Back then in late 1989 most greenhouse tomato growers had come from very different walks of life and for a myriad of different reasons. The approx 1200 of them at that time possibly had one thing in common – a bent for ‘things technical’ and doing it themselves.

 

Under CER the impacts of winter tomatoes imported from Queensland were just starting to have effects on the ‘$10/kg winter returns’. A little more on those imports shortly.

 

The Fresh Tomato Product Group (or Division as it was then known) had come into being on 31 October 1989, morphed out of the previous Tomato Industry Fund.

 

Some of the issues of the day may sound very familiar; e.g. fertiliser prices 10 -12 % above the rate of inflation, tomatoes priced below their real market value, promotion to lift consumption and to combat imports, cartons and hire pallets, the value of the 40/50 size tomato in the market place.

 

In mid 1991 the product group undertook an industry fact finding tour to British Columbia, England, Jersey and Holland. What an eye opener that was. Seeing the new high sided glasshouses, bumble bees used for pollination, predators for whitefly, talk of IPM in the widest sense, country of origin labeling in the UK supermarkets and grower collectiveness was a real eyeopener.

 

To quote the chair Brian Gargiulo from his 1991 speech at conference in Christchurch: “I am more and more convinced, particularly after my recent trip to Europe, that the only way we will stay healthy as growers is to be more collective. I have seen this practised extensively and successfully overseas, where the growers are competing routinely with imports considerably cheaper than their own production, yet they are still in business and making money.”

 

As part of a rationalization of the industry at that time the time and effort that went in to trying to standardize tomato packaging (cartons) in the early 90’s was long, hard, adversarial and frustrating.  By mid 1994 some collectiveness had occurred in and around Auckland with the four tomato packhouses forming an association and with representation on the product group committee.

 

Through the 90’s the Fresh Tomato Product Group in cahoots with Vegfed’s quarantine committee had battled away at MAF to keep it honest over the varietal requirements for tomatoes imported from Queensland. This issue was around the science that had been conducted with the chemical disinfestation treatment (dimethoate) for Queensland fruit fly on some (5) named, and older, green varieties only.

 

For over 15 years the product group/quarantine committee kept the pressure on our MAF officials for the Australians to have to prove that the dimethoate flood or spray treatment was just as effective on other and the newer gourmet varieties.  We knew that our MAF officials could have told their Australian counterparts how to change the bilateral quarantine agreement but to their credit, based on our pressure, they didn’t. In the end the Australians finally woke up to what they had to do and the import protocol was finally changed to allow in all varieties of tomatoes under the chemical treatment regime, in early 2002.

 

We even mounted a legal challenge based on two technical matters, had our day in the High Court with MAF (1 July 2002) where we argued for an interim injunction and MAF defended its original decision. The Judge ruled that our request be dismissed. As a result NZ now has imported red gourmet tomato varieties here in the winter months.

 

To more recent times and where grower numbers are down to around 250 (from 1200 twenty years earlier) but with much more production. On the positive side the adoption of all that new technology, the increased yields, the big properties, the development and growth of the export markets and the same with the specialty range of tomatoes was fascinating to see. Most retailers now routinely have a full range of varieties on display and what choice there is for the consumer! Included with all the reds on and off the truss, are yellow and ‘tiger’ striped tomatoes. On the negative side there have been all the increases in production costs, including energy and labour, that aren’t over yet with the government’s ETS just around the corner. To survive NZ tomato growers need better and more consistent returns than they are getting.

 

Growers had to weather the onslaught of the psyllid and Liberibacter in May 2008 and MAF BNZ’s strange approach to informing the world by withdrawing its own phytosanitary certification for our exports.  What a pleasure it was working to get the Japanese market back compared to the very long and protracted effort to get access back into Australia.

 

The next 20 years? Tomato growers need support and commitment from their customers: the retailers, merchants and buyers if they are to remain viable in to the future.  They need just rewards for their endeavours. The latter is long overdue and very necessary for the future of the New Zealand fresh tomato industry.