Unfair industry allocations could mean end of greenhouse farming in New Zealand

Tomato, pepper and cucumber growers are eagerly awaiting a decisive response from Climate Change Minister Simon Watts to their concerns about changes to industry allocations under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

“The proposed changes will add $30,000 per hectare in costs to New Zealand food producers and make the importation of foods with a higher carbon footprint more likely,” says Vegetables NZ chairman John Murphy.

“This is why the proposal is bad for producers, consumers and the environment.

“Vegetable producers are caught in a no man’s land with current policies. We are part of agriculture for some policies, but in this situation we are grouped with industrial heat, like steel production.

“The authorities have failed to take into account that we capture CO2 and inject it into our greenhouses to increase production. We grow more food in less space. Our carbon footprint is less than 1% of New Zealand’s emissions.”

John says the Climate Change Minister needs officials to consider the real impact of these policies and instead make decisions that would ensure New Zealand’s greenhouse industry can continue to decarbonise and grow fresh, healthy food for kiwifruit.

“We are asking for two things. First, a delay in the rebasing of the industrial allocation until July 2025 to allow time for gas contracts to expire and for producers to make other efficiency or fuel changes.

“Second, the creation of a Sustainable Food Systems Fund to reinvest greenhouse producers’ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) revenues into greenhouse decarbonization that supports the energy transition.”

John says greenhouse growers want to be as efficient as possible. “They are proud of the progress they have made. If government decisions disable them, all the progress will be lost and New Zealand’s food security will suffer.”

“It is an illusion to think that New Zealand can rely on fresh produce imports. The current threat posed by the presence of Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) in Australia demonstrates this once again.”

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