John Murphy: Vegetables NZ chair on warnings the Emission Trading Scheme could put greenhouse vegetable growers out of business

The Emissions Trading Scheme could soon stop Kiwis from eating their greens. 

Greenhouse tomato, cucumber and capsicum growers are set to be affected by changes to industrial allocation.  

Major producers could be lumped with a $200,000 fee, and Vegetables New Zealand says that will put some out of business. 

Vegetables New Zealand chair John Murphy joined Mike Hosking. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Clash between the climate battle and the cost of doing business,
though it's getting a bit real for some of the
veggie market, people who grow vegetables, greenhouse operators to Martis
Qcumb's capsicum and stuff like that, they're affected by changes
to what they call the industrial allocation. Major producers could
be lumped with a two hundred thousand dollars fee a
vegetable New Zealand says that will put some out of business. Obviously,

(00:20):
the chair is John Murphy. He's with us. John, very
good morning to you. They Mike, now explain to us
one oh one this for us, the industrial allocation is what.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's basically there to ensure that we don't simply end
up buying from less efficient producers overseas. So if local
producers here are text into oblivion, that's what ends up happening,
and obviously we don't want that to happen.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Okay, So how much is this is about the climate
climate change things like the etes versus the price of
gas which has gone through the roof.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
This is about the etes, right, So while there grows
are facing huge problems with that that this is about
the etes and it's really about the timing. So the
Ministry for the Environment is over eager and applying this
now and that's actually against that flies in the face
of commercial reality and what our girls can do about

(01:14):
it because many of those guest contracts run into next year.
So what we're saying is they need to delay until
next year to win. Our girls can actually do something
about What would.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
You do about it? If you could get out of
gas right now, what would you do about it?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, there's a number of things that Greenhouse girls are
already doing, from thermal screens to all manner of things.
And I think that's a really important point. Our Greenhouse
girls are some of the best people at uptaking new technologies.
They are doing their bit right, and unfortunately the other
one's been penalized right now.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Why can't they And just to explain this to everybody,
has it so? So you're locked into a gas contract,
you can't get out of it. That's the way the
business operates. And so government comes along and goes, you've
got to pay this because you know you're using gas
and gas is bad, et cetera, et cetera. Why don't
understand that?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I'm not sure. I think it's just just a triumph
of bureaucracy, and they think that they're improving the environment
by in this. I am putting this in place right now.
They're not because our girls can't do anything about it.
We need time to put practical solutions in place.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
How much time do you want? I mean is that
part of the problem though, But I mean how much
time would you want to sort of satisfy them if
they were open to being satisfied.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Look, we want to work with Minister Watts and Minister
Simmons and their officials. If we can work with them
this year, then our growers will start exiting some of
those contracts and we can put things in place.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
They're pretty sensible people. Why haven't they been able to
get through on this, because I mean they've done well
with the farmers so far in the ETA. Yes, Well,
have you slipped through the cracks or something?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I think we have a little bit. But I think
they've shown that they are eager to get on board
with this, and we need them to come to the
table now one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
How big is the glasshouse for want of a better word.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
It's pretty substantial, But there are less and less players
involved with policies like this and that's the dramatic thing
and the fear of it, this is that you'll see
ten dollar cucumber in no time, and we don't want that.
We want Keiwis to be eating more vegetables, getting one
more vegetable to their diet, because that's a way to
put it.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
The future for music couldn't agree more. Go well, John
will stay in touch with us, but I'm sure I
feel that this can get sorted out John Murphy, who's
Vegetables New Zealand and as a glasshouse owner myself, I
don't run on gas, but I'll tell you what, I
got a lot of sympothy going on here.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
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