Greenhouse tomato, capsicum, and cucumber growers are eager for New Zealand Climate Change Minister, Simon Watts to respond decisively to their concerns about changes to industrial allocation under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
'The proposed changes will add costs of $30,000 per hectare to growers of food for New Zealanders and make the importation of food with a higher carbon footprint more likely,' says Vegetables NZ chair, John Murphy. 'That is why the proposal is bad for growers, consumers, and the environment.
"Vegetable growers are caught in no man's land with the current policy settings. We are part of agriculture for some policies but then in this situation, we are grouped with process heat, like steel production. What officials have failed to account for in growing food in glasshouses is that we capture CO2 and pump it into our glasshouses to increase production. We grow more food in less space. Our CO2 footprint is less than 1% of New Zealand's emissions.'
John says the Climate Change Minister needs officials to consider the real-world effect of these policies and instead, make decisions that would ensure New Zealand's greenhouse industry can continue to decarbonize and grow fresh, healthy food for kiwis.
'What we are seeking are two things. One, a delay to the industrial allocation baseline change until July 2025 to allow time for gas contracts to expire and for growers to make further efficiency or fuel changes.
'Two, the establishment of a Sustainable Food Systems Fund to reinvest ETS proceeds from greenhouse growers in greenhouse decarbonisation that supports fuel transition.'
John says greenhouse growers want to be as efficient as possible. 'They are proud of the progress they have made. If Government decisions put them out of business, all the progress will be lost, and New Zealand's food security will suffer.
'It's a fallacy to think that New Zealand can rely on imports of fresh food. The current threat posed by the presence of the Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) in Australia goes to show this, once again.'
For more information:
Fresh Vegetables NZ
www.freshvegetables.co.nz