Vegetable growers need cheaper energy solutions or face exiting the business as energy costs rise and gas supplies tighten.
Vegetables New Zealand energy engineer Ellery Peters says natural gas makes up a large proportion of the sector's emissions and growers are now dealing with fluctuating prices and availability.
Supply contracts are getting smaller, and, in some cases, growers are being told they must "shut off their supply now", Peters says.
"We are trying to support their transition from that, if they are forced to."
He says growers have also been responding to rising carbon prices.
In 2019 about 50 per cent of the industry's emissions profile was from coal, followed by natural gas and then other hydrocarbons such as diesel and waste oil.
"What we have seen from the new data we have collected in 2024 is that portion of coal has reduced substantially, and it is actually dominated by natural gas."
Some larger growers are switching to biomass, Peters says. "But many of the small-to-medium players are moving to waste oil from coal because they find that it's a very easy switch and it's the cheapest fuel source that they can find for themselves."