Growers welcome new policy as ‘a great first step’

WELLINGTON: Growers are hailing the Government’s new national policy statement for highly productive land as ‘‘a great first step’’.

Released yesterday, the new rules are aimed at ensuring highly productive land can be used for growing vegetables, fruit and other produce.

Councils will now need to identify, map and manage productive land to protect it from inappropriate use and development.

However, they can still make it available for urban housing if there is no alternative, or if certain tests are met.

Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Nadine Tunley said with good planning, New Zealand could have both housing and fresh fruit and vegetables.

‘‘HortNZ has advocated for nearly a decade for government policy that recognises the importance of our best soils, and ensures that they are prioritised for what they are best for — producing healthy vegetables and fruit.’’

She said there was a lot of work still to be done as the policy would need to integrate with two other policies — the

Spatial Planning Bill and the Natural and Built Environments Bill — which are replacing the Resource Management Act.

The new policy statement gave growers more certainty about the future, she said.

‘‘It will help provide clarity around where [they] can develop land and how they can function on land they currently have, because there are a lot of problems with that in the periurban areas.’’

She said Horticulture New Zealand would help councils through the process of mapping the best productive land.

‘‘Councils are the best place to do this work, but I know the industry and growers will be keen to be heavily involved because at the end of the day, they understand the importance of balancing the growing of fruit and vegetables while providing housing as well.

‘‘This is a great first step and we’re really happy to see where this goes going forward.’’

Cam Lewis from Horowhenua’s Tendertips Asparagus supported the rules, but said he was keen to read the fine print.

‘‘In principal, we think this is a really good thing . . .

‘‘The only caveat of this is that if our costs to grow vegetables keep going up and up, and we become uncompetitive and are no longer are able to produce food off our land, then we’ve lost the opportunity to sell that land for housing, so that could be a challenge we have.’’