The who's who of New Zealand's fruit and vegetable sector are convening in the capital this week to bite into the challenges facing the horticulture sector. More than 800 produce companies, growers, regulators and government officials attended the two-day horticulture and RSE conferences in Wellington that opened on Tuesday.
Sector wins this past year were celebrated, like the predicted record export revenue of more than $8.4 billion in the year to June and large-scale water storage projects in the works. But challenges growers faced featured too, such as adverse weather including the recent top of the South Island floods and unstable commercial energy supplies.
Kate Scott, chief executive of levy-funded industry group Horticulture New Zealand opened the event, and said growers have had to be resilient this year. "If there's one word that sums up the past year in New Zealand horticulture, it's resilience.
"Resilience in the way growers have recovered from adverse events, resilience in the face of rising costs, regulatory reform, biosecurity threats and the ongoing and unpredictable issues that arise every day when we're growing food for New Zealand and the world."
Read more at RNZ
