What does AHAP mean in practice

Opinion editorial by Andrew Gibbs, Aotearoa Horticulture Action Plan steering group chair

 

New Zealand’s horticulture sector is in a strong growth phase, with export revenue expected to lift sharply this year and rise again in 2027.

Latest Ministry for Primary Industries forecasts have horticulture export revenue rising to $7.4 billion in the year to 30 June 2026, before lifting to more than $7.6 billion the following year.

That momentum puts the sector on a solid path towards the Aotearoa Horticulture Action Plan goal of doubling farmgate value by 2035, while improving prosperity for our people and protecting our environment.

Some growers may wonder what the AHAP means in practice, and what it delivers on farm or in the orchard.

At its heart, the AHAP is about lining up effort and investment across the sector so we can tackle the big, shared challenges and deliver practical gains for growers.

Other sectors have had strategies and government funding before, but the AHAP is different because horticulture is such a broad church, made up of many different product groups.

Those groups had their own strategies, but there were also bigger issues across the sector that no one group could solve on its own.

The AHAP really came out of Covid and out of a growing sense that if we worked more closely together and pooled resources, we could make more progress on the big issues.

That meant bringing those plans together, working out where the common ground was, and then getting on with the job in a more co-ordinated way.

For the first time the sector came together around a shared vision and a set of agreed actions.

Each group still has its own strategic direction, but they are now working together on the more complex challenges that are better tackled collectively.

From a funding and resourcing point of view, we decided to pull together what was already there and put it behind the issues we had in common.

The AHAP was built with input from industry, government, Māori and science partners, around five common priority areas.

Those priorities are to grow sustainably, optimise value, ensure Māori are strong in horticulture, utilise science and knowledge, and nurture people.

We are now firmly in delivery mode. The first phase of implementation is underway, ten plus AHAP-initiated projects have been completed, a steering group is in place, and there are more than 530 initiatives either completed, under way or in the pipeline across the sector.

Government agencies have responded well too and are working together more closely. MPI is co-ordinating the government side of that effort in support of our growth programmes.

The plan identifies the priority areas that need attention, and our steering committee helps co-ordinate the work and work with the AHAP quad partners to decide who is best placed to lead each programme.

For growers, that should mean practical help for the business rather than more paperwork - better tools, smarter settings and stronger support around things like crop protection, water, workforce, market access and resilience.

We commissioned research into the volume of produce being transported within New Zealand at each stage of the supply chain. The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) will use this as input into the National Freight Demand Study.

We are supporting smaller product groups to build scale and mapping out pathways for them to sustainably grow profitably. That includes building a horticulture tech stack to help product groups and growers identify what they need to focus on to move up to the next level.

For example, the Bioeconomy Science Institute is supporting product groups such as citrus and tomatoes to map out what sustained growth could look like.

We are also working with politicians, policy-makers and the wider public, including schoolchildren, to get people out onto farms and orchards so they can better understand what growing involves, the challenges that come with it, and the opportunities it creates.

We are working, together with AHAP quad partners, on resilience in areas such as water, water storage and biosecurity tools, focused on the sector’s sustainable growth.

Importantly, the programme is not just about driving revenue growth. It is about delivering sustainable, profitable growth behind the farm or orchard gate.

There is a strong focus on the cost of production as well as the value of products in the marketplace, because it is not sustainable to produce food that is unprofitable to grow.

We are monitoring the performance of all the interventions we make around growth and value optimisation, and each of our pillars has indicators. That allows us to track how we are performing and the value the programme is delivering.

That is the strength of AHAP: tackling shared challenges in a way that benefits the whole sector. Reaching the AHAP goal of doubling farmgate value by 2035 will take all of us continuing to work together, contributing and backing the changes that help horticulture thrive.

It is a genuinely exciting programme to be part of. As chair of the AHAP steering group, I often think of it like conducting an orchestra: each group has its own part to play, and when it all comes together, it can be pretty powerful.