The Country 21/08/25: Kate Scott talks to Jamie Mackay

The chief executive of Horticulture NZ previews next week’s annual conference and gala dinner, comments on the superfood kiwifruit, and looks at some of the accommodation issues facing RSE workers. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kate Scott is the Chief executive of Horticulture New Zealand
and your conference coming up next week in Wellington. Kate,
I want to start on the Kiwi Fruit story because
tomorrow the show is coming out of the Tarong of studios.
I'm heading up for a fundraiser at the Tapuki Rugby
Club with Shane Jones. Thus the reason for broadcasting out
of Taronga, and one of my guests live in the

(00:22):
studio will be Jason to Break, the chief executive of Zespriy.
So they're getting record returns for everything apart from organic
green at the moment, so Kiwi Fruit is on a
real high right.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Look, Kiwi fruit are certainly the star of our horticulture
sector at the moment. They are absolutely smashing it. So
you know it's great that you can head to the
capital of Kiwi Fruit and Poky.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, really looking forward to it, Kate. Okay, So they've
reached that they've fulfilled their ten year plan, which was
to have the industry worth a four point five billion
by twenty twenty five. Their next ten year plan by
twenty thirty five, they want to be no as the
world's healthiest fruit brand and I see no reason why
kiwi fruit shouldn't be it's a superfood.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Look, keewy fruit is a superfood. And look, we as
a horticulture sector are incredibly proud of, you know, the
role that kwy fruit plays in our sector. But you know,
for them to have done what they've done over the
past ten years and looking to the future is just
a real clear signal for the opportunity that lies generally
within the hawk sector. I think from my point of view,

(01:29):
you know, the opportunity that falls on the back of
keiwi fruit being able to establish its strong health claims
is something that the rest of the sector can aspire
to in terms of how do we continue to talk
about healthy fruit and healthy vegetables for the world. Last week,
what is New Zealand's right?

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, last week you were at the spud conference, the
potato conference. Let me be more formal there, how do
you make the common spud sexy?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Kate? Well, look, that was a key part of the
discussions that last week conference, and I guess you know,
the humble spud is something that seems to get a
bit of a bad rap these days. We all think,
you know, eating potatoes is going to overload ourselves with carbs.
But if we start to look at you know, what
are the opportunities for potatoes to I don't know, become

(02:15):
more of a convenience snack. You know, no one wants
to spend the time peeling or roasting these days. So
there were some great insights shared at the conference around
the way that the potato industry is focusing on adding
value to the humble spud, something that I think off
the top of my head, a significant portion of New
Zealanders are still eating every day or three to five

(02:36):
times a week. You know, there's a lot of work
to be done, but a lot of opportunity to enhance
the humble spud.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
You've got over eight hundred people attending the Heart New
Zealand Annual Conference next week in Wellington, four hundred and
fifty attending the industry awards in gala dinner. Also, the
conference is being run concurrently with the RSC conference. Now
there's a bit of an issue there. You having a
bit of a dig at the government because you reckon
they're not letting enough RSC workers in. We're trying to

(03:04):
double the value of exports in this country. Horticulture is
going to have to do a lot of the heavy
lifting there, Kate Scott and the key weis in many
cases aren't prepared to do the heavy lifting when it
comes to the picking.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah. Look, what we have recently been raising our concerns
about in terms of RC is the recent government decision
to lift the accommodation rate by two point five percent
rather than seeking an increase to the caps, so that
the current cap is around that twenty odd thousand RC
workers every year. What we are seeing across our sector

(03:39):
is that over the last six to seven years, the
cost of providing accommodation have risen substantially on the back
of inflation, you know, to put it in context for you,
you know, we've got some pretty there evidence that talks
to the fact that it used to cost probably in
the order of about twenty eight thousand dollars a bid
equivalent to build a new accommodation facility to hose IRAC workers.

(04:02):
That cost over the last six years has risen to
around eighty six thousand dollars a bid, which is a
substantial increase. And when growers are only able to increase
what they can capture for that cost by two point
five percent, there is a bit of a gap there,
and so that's a concern for many of our growers
as how do they continue to provide good quality accommodation

(04:25):
when they can't recroporate the cost for doing so.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Kate Scott, Chief Executive of Horticulture is Zellen, Thanks for
your time today on the country. Good luck for your
big conference next week in Wellington.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Thanks Jamie