Mike's Blog
by Mike Chapman, HortNZ CEO
Are you listening?
06 Aug 2020
The different world we now live in requires us all to learn new skills. It requires us to interpret what is happening in new and different ways. It requires us to listen to si...
‘The times, they are a changing’
29 Jul 2020
We pride ourselves in New Zealand as being innovators. The New Zealand horticulture industry is no exception to this reputation for innovation, with growers developing new an...
Water and workers – where’s the certainty?
24 Jul 2020
We are rapidly approaching spring and with spring comes harvest. First strawberries and asparagus, then cherries. At the same time, spring vegetable production steps up. All...
Horticulture’s contribution to Covid recovery
16 Jul 2020
Our industry’s contribution to the Covid recovery would seem as simple of providing fresh healthy grown local vegetables and fruit. But since we emerged from lockdown, this h...
Fit for a Better World – workers for the future
10 Jul 2020
The Fit for a Better World primary sector action plan was released by the Government on 6 July. It contains some seriously ambitious targets through three themes: Productivi...
Auckland needs to own its water problem
02 Jul 2020
Our urban water crisis has been coming for some time and is not just limited to Auckland. Many other urban centres around New Zealand faced severe water shortages last summer...
Regulatory balances
25 Jun 2020
Are we going to take advantage of the many opportunities that Covid has presented us? After all, there are many downsides. The chance to remove unnecessary regulation is a key...
Border lessons from Covid
18 Jun 2020
There is much we can learn from Covid, including international and New Zealand made lessons. The most critical is that the border is not secure. In the primary sector, we are ...
Covid recovery is a partnership
15 Jun 2020
New Zealand is getting back to the business of making money with Covid Alert Level One seeing the re-opening of what was closed or restricted during Covid Alert Levels 4 and 3...
Back the superhero: the primary sector for our economic recovery
08 Jun 2020
This week, the first round of the wage subsidy scheme ends. Businesses are now realising that there is an end to Government support and are asking, ‘where to next?’ The wage s...
The future for crop protection: A Lighter Touch
02 Jun 2020
Even Auckland City is now realising the need to capture and store water. As a country, we are at a crisis point as climate change brings longer and more frequent droughts. Pla...
The Financial Cycle of Life
22 May 2020
Getting the COVID recovery right falls to all the small to medium sized businesses around the country, be they urban or rural based. It is a fallacy to think the Government w...
Educate to innovate
22 May 2020
It’s time to release our education from the shackles of the past. What worked pre-COVID will simply not work in the new world. If we try and replicate the current education ...
Growing our way out of COVID in the recovery's third wave – growing healthy food
18 May 2020
I am proposing that there is a third wave to New Zealand's COVID recovery plan. The first wave focused on the health of people. The second wave is focusing on the economy, wit...
What’s needed for successfully redeploying unemployed workers
07 May 2020
We all know we need to redeploy unemployed workers. There are numerous ways of finding people who are looking for work. The challenge is getting the right fit for both the wor...
Food supply and security, and McDonald’s lack of lettuce
01 May 2020
Like a dog howling at the moon, Horticulture New Zealand has been on about the need for New Zealand to have a food security policy and plan. Pre-COVID, we gained no traction. ...
Finding the missing link between employers and kiwi workers
29 Apr 2020
An employer and someone sitting at home without a job have exactly the same problem: none of us know what is going happen as the country works its way through COVID-19. Perhap...
Supply chains disappearing into the COVID Vortex
23 Apr 2020
We are all focused on doing our level best not to catch COVID-19.Our omission is that getting sick is not the only COVID impact. There is an enormous COVID Vortex that is suck...
A new world after the COVID-19 winter
17 Apr 2020
The New Zealand Treasury has released an assessment on the impact of COVID-19, which makes very depressing reading. Treasury’s most dire prediction is unemployment could reac...
COVID-19 and the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables
06 Apr 2020
Fresh fruit and vegetable consumption in Germany has increased by 100% since they were hit by COVID-19. Empty fruit and vegetable shelves are being spotted every day at Swiss...
Uncertain times for all
31 Mar 2020
We are now nearly a week into lockdown and I feel it is important for me to acknowledge the pressure and uncertainty that growers and others in our essential industry are unde...
Time to eat healthy
19 Mar 2020
Photo: 5+ A DayAs with every crisis, the first goal is to make a plan and then progressively make the plan better. Your personal plan may start off with working out how you an...
People are paramount
12 Mar 2020
As a world we are focusing on people, with the World Health Organisation declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, travel restrictions in place, and events being postponed or cancelled. ...
Time to Re-Focus
05 Mar 2020
Coronavirus or Covid 19 has impacted the world. Things that we have all taken for granted are under threat: unrestricted air travel, goods being rapidly shipped around the wor...
Where’s the water infrastructure?
26 Feb 2020
Can anyone deny that we need to urgently start capturing and storing water? Before we forget about the effects of the drought on New Zealand, it’s time for the Government and...
International Year of Plant Health
20 Feb 2020
Mike at the International Year of Plant Health launch at Parliament on 18 February The United Nations has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health to raise awar...
Enduring sustainability
14 Feb 2020
Zespri is currently running its Momentum conference on sustainability with the by-line: standing up, standing out. Zespri’s focus is on the entire supply chain, from growing ...
British Trade Sovereignty
05 Feb 2020
This week we celebrate Waitangi Day, a day symbolic of our nation’s sovereignty. At the end of last month, Britain took back its sovereignty from the European Union with Brexi...
Capitalism vs. prescription, and the environment
29 Jan 2020
Shortly after becoming Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern commented that capitalism has been “a blatant failure”. However, New Zealand is and has been for many years, a mix of cap...
Waste no water
23 Jan 2020
Do you think Australia would waste water like we do in New Zealand? I don’t think so. One of the main differences between New Zealand and our Australian neighbours is that we ...
Food to China – reputation is key
16 Jan 2020
Food imported from New Zealand to China makes up about 9% of total food imports to China by value. A new report by the China Chamber of Commerce states that New Zealand food ...
Lessons from the Australian bush fires
07 Jan 2020
Watching the bush fires rage in Australia is harrowing as well as thought provoking. One of the things it has made me think about is the need for New Zealand to have a food s...
Growth = Risk + Finance + Opportunity
11 Dec 2019
No one in the food and fibre industry is risk-averse. Growers and farmers face many risks every day as they strive to deliver their product to market. More frequent extreme ...
Consumers vs. Trade Barriers
04 Dec 2019
Waitrose supermarkets in the United Kingdom have announced that they will only sell UK farmed lamb as it is important to ‘invest in British agriculture’. Waitrose is now phasi...
No more locally grown, fresh vegetables for Wellington?
03 Jul 2019
Being able to pop down to the local roadside market or, more lately, the weekly farmers market for fresh, locally grown vegetables is something that an increasing number of pe...
Infinite Suppliers of Food to New Zealand and the World
10 Jul 2019
I don’t think we realise how rapidly technology is changing, not only the way we live but how we work. It is almost unseen and fortunately so far, we seem to be rapidly assim...
Pacific Island Labour Mobility
18 Jul 2019
The Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) conference has been held in Vanuatu this week. RSE is the name for the Pacific Island seasonal labour scheme where workers from the Pa...
Stopping growth and sustainability – The Reserve Bank’s proposal
29 Jul 2019
The Reserve Bank's proposal is to nearly double the minimum amount of capital (equity) that banks are required to hold as a mitigation to a banking crisis. The idea is the in...
‘Let them eat bark’
31 Jul 2019
New Zealand faces several climate change challenges, thanks to being an island nation and having an economy that relies on primary production. One solution to our country’s c...
Guest Blog: Opportunity to help reshape the Biosecurity Act
12 Aug 2019
With Mike on leave, Deputy Chief Executive, Leanne Stewart has contributed this week's blog. The review of the Biosecurity Act provides an opportunity for industry groups to...
Guest Blog: Getting prepared for a food safety incident
21 Aug 2019
With Mike on leave, Deputy Chief Executive, Leanne Stewart has contributed this week's blog. The safety of the fresh fruit and vegetables commercially grown by our horticultur...
Guest Blog: Improving the plant import system to support our innovation
27 Aug 2019With Mike on leave, Deputy Chief Executive, Leanne Stewart has contributed this week's blog. This week, I took part in a workshop with representatives from industry organisati...
Where is the water?
02 Sep 2019
I’ve just returned from a holiday in Europe and Morocco (empty dam pictured). One of the hot topics up there is water, or the lack of water. This is because there has been les...
Forgotten aspects of water
06 Sep 2019
The Government released its consultation on freshwater this week (click here). We are now busy analysing it in detail and it is really too early to reach a view about the ult...
The Urban / Rural Divide
11 Sep 2019
The freshwater consultation launched by the Government last week has illustrated by just how much the urban / rural divide has grown. For the first time, the degradation to f...
Month of Delivery
23 Sep 2019
At the beginning of the year, the Government announced this would be the year of delivery. Until September, it was a quiet year but then the floodgates opened. New labour an...
The art of regulation
27 Sep 2019
The Government’s consultations on land use and freshwater quality unearth questions, both about how far the regulation should extend into how food is grown and to what degree ...
New Zealand Needs a Plan Not Regulation
07 Oct 2019
Cleaning up water quality and meeting the challenges of climate change will not be achieved through current ways. That is, through the Resource Management Act, central govern...
New structures for new challenges
10 Oct 2019
Einstein famously said the definition of insanity is to do the exact same thing again and again and expect things to change. Ever since he said that we have proved it to be t...
Water Quality Consultation
18 Oct 2019
On 31 October the Government’s current round of consultation on freshwater quality will close. The full details of this are on the Ministry for the Environment’s website. Th...
Where’s the plan New Zealand?
27 Nov 2019
The Ports of Auckland debate is a prime example of the lack of nationwide coordinated planning. Being less than charitable, it would seem that the Ports of Auckland just happ...
Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change
25 Oct 2019
The Government has just announced an agreement with the primary sector for that sector and not the Government to take the initiative to make climate change adaptations.This is...
Skilled Job Creation Crisis
31 Oct 2019Despite the horticulture industry experiencing year on year growth, the headline is that the number of learners studying agriculture and horticulture has dropped from 67,362 i...
Horticulture’s Report Card
27 Jun 2019
This week the Hawkes Bay hosts the National Horticulture Fieldays putting horticulture on display. It is therefore timely to take a snap shot of where horticultural is at and...
Align Polices and Regulation to achieve Climate Change
20 Jun 2019
Climate change mitigation, new environmental regimes and more restrictive access to water will, in the next few years, have a major impact on the primary sector in New Zealand...
Feeding New Zealand First
17 Jun 2019
Mystery Creek Fieldays are over for another year and as with every year there’s lots to buy and there’s lots to listen to. This year in addition to the release of the annual ...
Sustainability
10 Jun 2019Last week the Ballance Farm Environment Sustainability national awards ceremony were held in Hamilton and amongst the regional finalists competing for the national title there...
Supporting great careers in horticulture
23 May 2019Getting the horticulture careers message out to people at school, looking for the opportunity for an exciting career, is a big challenge. Over the years, we've learned a fe...
Innovating for the future
17 May 2019There are many challenges facing primary production, and the only way that these challenges are going to be conquered is by researching new technologies, and new ways of grow...
Business as usual won't achieve Zero Carbon
09 May 2019The Zero Carbon Bill was introduced into Parliament on Wednesday, May 8, and as the Prime Minister has said, it provides certainty to business (particularly the primary secto...
How much capital is enough?
03 May 2019The Reserve Bank is currently consulting on a proposal to get New Zealand banks to hold more funds. This would reduce the risk of banks failing so that, in the event of a ‘ru...
Putting the tomorrow in tomorrow’s schools
29 Apr 2019Following extensive consultation in 2018, a government appointed taskforce put together a comprehensive report called ‘Our Schooling Futures: Stronger Together’. This report ...
A conference like no other – our food future
15 Apr 2019Horticulture’s growth is underpinned by innovation and grower know-how. This isn’t limited to growing techniques, but also a rapidly increasing use of technology. Want to lea...
The future of apple picking
12 Apr 2019New Zealand’s growers are now, and always have been, great innovators. The main impediments to adoption of technology are cost, access, and expertise. However, whether it’s...
Growing what consumers want
05 Apr 2019The days of the standard New Zealand evening meal being meat and three vegetables are changing. Research from IBISWorld reports that sales of vegan food products “have soared...
Climate change: Science vs politics
27 Mar 2019Worldwide, there are protests demanding action on climate change and in New Zealand, the report of our Interim Climate Change Committee is soon to be released. At the same ti...
Reform of Vocational Education
21 Mar 2019Learner numbers are dropping. This has seen the polytechnic sector turn from a once breakeven operation into one now making a loss, with the only exception being where there ...
Workforce changes present opportunities for industry
14 Mar 2019The Government is delivering on temporary work visas and vocational training, with consultation running on some potentially wide-ranging reforms in these two areas. Both urb...
Horticulture’s ask from 2019 Budget
07 Mar 2019The Government is preparing the 2019 Budget, to be delivered on 30 May. This will be New Zealand’s first well-being budget and very much a world first covering: (1) natural c...
Suffocation by taxation
28 Feb 2019We are currently analysing the final report of the Tax Working Group (TWG), and offering our views on what has been recommended. It seems there may have been a significant op...
Tax and the impending death of small business
25 Feb 2019The saying goes: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. The Tax Working Group report has been made public and it appears to be true: more ...
Move to high wage economy needs to be better thought through
15 Feb 2019Successive governments have deployed policies to transform the New Zealand economy. One transformational policy is to turn New Zealand into a high wage economy. Those that...
Capital gains tax not right for New Zealand
08 Feb 2019The report from the tax working group, including the merits or otherwise for a capital gains tax, has been made available to Government, and is due for public release later t...
Working together for healthy rivers and healthy food
01 Feb 2019We can have both healthy rivers and healthy food. All that is required is for us to work together as one country and face up to the fact that we are going to need to store w...
Food production versus the invisible hand
25 Jan 2019The “invisible hand” is the unobservable market force that helps the demand and supply of goods in a free market to reach equilibrium automatically. The phrase “invisible ha...
Plants need water too
17 Jan 2019Horticulture New Zealand submits to councils from one end of New Zealand to the other to get water allocated for plants that grow healthy food. You would think that it is sel...
Australia competes for harvest workers
11 Jan 2019Australia and New Zealand are facing the same problem: we are both very short of workers for harvesting fruit and vegetables. This issue will not go away in the immediate or...
Horticulture will play a role in climate change mitigation
13 Dec 2018Recently, a number of reports about climate change mitigations have been released, including one from Motu called Land-use Change as a Mitigation Option for Climate Change. ...
The facts about nitrogen in horticulture
11 Dec 2018Stuff recently gave space to an opinion piece from Glen Herud, a dairy farmer, which had a number of inaccurate references to the use of nitrogen in horticulture and horticul...
Trade risks to New Zealand
07 Dec 2018The growing tensions between the United States and China are casting an ominous shadow over world trade. The risks are now becoming the subject of frequent commentary in ma...
Employment law changes next year
29 Nov 2018The Government’s Employment Relations Amendment Bill had its second reading in Parliament on Tuesday. Some key changes from its original form were identified in response to i...
What’s the future for rural New Zealand?
22 Nov 2018My job takes me around the country, talking to people who are the backbone of New Zealand. They are worried and feel deserted by urban New Zealand. If you are a grower who fe...
Engaging the unemployed
15 Nov 2018The economists call it ‘maximum sustainable employment’; that is apparently what we have reached in New Zealand, with a remarkably low 3.9% unemployment. This is below the Go...
No workers, no fruit and veges
09 Nov 2018There have been three recent announcements of interest to horticulture: 1. The Prime Minister and the Chair of the Business Advisory Council announcing the four priority area...
Trade deal fantastic for horticulture
05 Nov 2018Largely unnoticed by media last week was the announcement that the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will take effect from 30 December this year...
Water for all New Zealanders
02 Nov 2018An important issue facing New Zealanders is water – both availability and quality. Across rural New Zealand there are thousands of schemes and initiatives focused on water. T...
Will increased compliance promote growth?
25 Oct 2018The simple answer is, that depends on what the requirements are. First some facts. Over the past compliance for growers exponentially increased. A few examples include requi...
Horticulture on a roll
18 Oct 2018This week, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) released its quarterly outlook figures for New Zealand’s primary sector. Horticultural growth for the coming year, includ...
What’s happening to the Aussie Dollar?
12 Oct 2018The Australian dollar has dropped to its lowest levels in two years, with a year-to-date loss of 9% against the US dollar. According to some commentators, the Australian dol...
Vegetable growing in Sri Lanka
05 Oct 2018Seeing another country’s vegetable growing industry first hand is not only fascinating, but it gives a point for comparison with our industry in New Zealand. I recently trav...
Asian markets still open
18 Sep 2018Guest Blog – Richard Palmer Asia Fruit Logistica 2018 took place in Hong Kong in the first week in September (we’re glad to not be there this week as Typhoon Mangkhut strikes...
Climate change and rural confidence
07 Sep 2018There has been a lot of talk in the media and in boardrooms about a drop in business confidence. This is also a hot topic in the rural sector, with some of the employment law...
Damning decision from district council
29 Aug 2018Earlier this week, the Tasman District Council decided not to support the development of Waimea Community Dam. This dam was going to supply water for urban households, suppor...
Sustainability – the theme of the Young Grower final
27 Aug 2018Last week, the national finals of the Young Grower of the Year were held in Napier. In addition to practical in-the-field events and business sessions, there were a leaders...
Time to act on food security
16 Aug 2018It’s time to act on food security New Zealand. We cannot take for granted that our fruit and vegetable growers can continue to feed New Zealand, as well as generate increasi...
A measured approach to new age crop protection
10 Aug 2018There are many bugs and diseases that attack plants, animals and humans. To manage and fight off these attacks a range of compounds are used, many of them with a chemical ba...
Balance needed between climate change mitigation and food production
03 Aug 2018In a letter published in the scientific journal, Nature Climate Change, entitled “Risk of increased food insecurity under stringent global climate change mitigation policy” t...
Does complexity produce quality?
27 Jul 2018A constant concern of all businesses, whether urban or rural based, is that running their business is becoming increasingly harder as profit margins become tighter. Complicate...
Horticulture New Zealand’s top five
19 Jul 2018Next week, Horticulture New Zealand has its Annual General Meeting (AGM), where we will focus on our top five activities including: Biosecurity - Since last year’s AGM we hav...
Horticulture Conference is a must-attend
12 Jul 2018
The Horticulture Conference will be held at the Air Force Museum in Christchurch from 23 to 25 July. The theme this year is ‘Our Food Story’, with the sessions tracing that st...
Join the campaign to Fix the Bill
09 Jul 2018Two Bills before Parliament will radically change how employment law operates in New Zealand. Both Bills are designed to increase the influence of unions and to change how th...
The impact of rising wages
02 Jul 2018New Zealand’s economy is in good shape and growing. In the past, when the economy is growing, workers have gone after wage increases. The flow-on effect of this is that busin...
Good law-making missing on Regional Fuel Tax
22 Jun 2018The Government plans to implement, in conjunction with the Auckland Council, a fuel tax for Auckland on 1 July 2018. On behalf of our growers, HortNZ has submitted to the Par...
Employment relations the new frontier
13 Jun 2018This Government has launched reviews of education and tax, plus it has created a new Climate Change Commission. It has also announced a shake-up of workplace laws. The educat...
Sustaining our environment – best products from the best country
06 Jun 2018On World Environment Day, 5 June, Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor launched a primary sector action plan for water quality. This is ...
Know your food
01 Jun 2018Consumer trend reports show that when consumers are asked to pay a premium price for their food, those consumers want to know why it’s worth it; namely, where and how that fo...
Criminalising cartel conduct comes with risk
28 May 2018Criminalising cartel conduct poses some risks to the way we do business in New Zealand. It may well have the unintended consequence of making us less competitive, both in Ne...
Unionisation Bill – Nine Reasons Why Not
21 May 2018The Government has introduced the Employment Relations Amendment Bill – in the process of making legislation – to bring back unionisation. Here are nine reasons not to supp...
Biocontrol our best defence
14 May 2018Winter, the risk season for the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), is finishing in the Northern hemisphere countries where it lives. In winter, this bug hibernates in dark an...
Maintaining trade rules essential
10 May 2018New Zealand relies on trade for its economic survival. Without trade New Zealand would be a very different and a much poorer country. Successive New Zealand Governments have ...
Do we really need another fuel tax?
04 May 2018Reducing congestion on our main roads and making roads safer is something we all want. How we make that happen is the hard question. A simple solution would be less cars on t...
Technology is not a magic bullet
27 Apr 2018New Zealand unemployment is currently at its lowest level since 2008. In some areas of the country there are very few people available for work, down to double digits, and thi...
Saving our land
20 Apr 2018Yesterday, the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand released the Our Land 2018 report which provides pertinent data about the state of land in New Zealand....
Partnership key to address labour shortages
13 Apr 2018All New Zealand industries are currently experiencing a shortage of workers. In some areas, particularly in the South Island, there are very few unemployed, and in some cases...
Water essential to feed New Zealand
06 Apr 2018Reality: plants need water to grow, and that water supply needs to be consistent and reliable. In the past two years, there have been extreme climatic events, alternating be...
The rise of the flexitarians
05 Apr 2018There is a food revolution coming the way of farmers and growers, caused by consumers around the world changing their eating habits. Beef + Lamb NZ recently released an excel...
The balancing act of workplace relations
29 Mar 2018There has been significant maturing on New Zealand’s labour law in recent years. The current legislation set about to achieve a greater degree of co-operation, trust, and fai...
Horticulture: growth predictions and constraints
23 Mar 2018This week the Ministry for Primary Industries released its growth predictions. Modest growth is predicted for horticulture (including wine), with kiwifruit and apples predict...
Where are the workers?
16 Mar 2018A question many industries in New Zealand are asking is “where are the workers?” While robotics and artificial intelligence are being touted to replace workers in many indust...
New features in the CPTPP
12 Mar 2018Today’s trade deals are broadening their focus, from just addressing tariff reductions to including issues that are challenging the world today, such as protecting the enviro...
CPTPP a real win for New Zealand
09 Mar 2018Once you strip away all the figures, data, and modelling, there remains one essential fact: free trade deals generate incredible wealth for those who are party to them. In ...
Vocational training needs to change with the times
02 Mar 2018For a number of years, vocational training in New Zealand has not worked well for our industry. The prime reason for this is how this training is funded by the Government. ...
Stormy weather and food supply
26 Feb 2018Ex-Cyclone Gita was a very real reminder about how our food supply can be affected by the weather. Wellington’s main route north up the Kapiti coast was cut off for some tim...
Protecting New Zealand’s borders – isolation is not enough
19 Feb 2018New Zealand’s isolation from the rest of the world has, until recently, protected our country from many pests and diseases. By good luck and some good management we have ke...
Telling our food story
14 Feb 2018If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? In the past year, we have taken on the challenge of getting our food story out to urban New...
Linking compliance to consumer expectations
09 Feb 2018The way to grow a primary sector business is to provide the consumers of our food with what they want. But in recent years, the focus has been forced away from consumers and ...
Let’s not waste precious soil and water
02 Feb 2018The most telling difference between soil and water is that water is a renewable resource, while the soil we have for growing food is not. What they have in common is that we...
Horticulture – the quiet achiever
26 Jan 2018Across New Zealand, growers are planting and planning new developments, and capitalising on the spectacular growth of the horticulture industry. The end point to the growin...
Water storage to improve water standards
18 Jan 2018Environment Minister David Parker has announced that preliminary work has begun to create a new freshwater policy for New Zealand, building on the previous Government’s wor...
Seasonal labour a vital ingredient
11 Jan 2018Research New Zealand recently conducted a survey reporting on the impacts of the RSE scheme, where it has directly enabled: - The area under cultivation to expand consistentl...
The long arm of competition law
09 Jan 2018Yes, there is a branch of law called competition law. Simply put, its aim is to make sure consumers get the best price, by making sure companies compete with each other in th...