Growers fear golden queens may go pear-shaped
HAWKE’S BAY peach growers have warned the Government not to put the $15 million canning industry at risk by allowing dumped product to be imported into New Zealand.
Greek and Spanish canned peaches could be imported at a fraction of the cost of local varieties. Anti-dumping legislation currently prohibits them from entering but the Government is reviewing the rules.
Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers Association vice-president Dave Mackie said peach growers who supplied Heinz Watties might have to pull orchards out and get out of the business.
‘‘This industry contributes $15 million to the Hawke’s Bay economy. If you bring in the dumped product we have to cut the trees out, which take five years to get into production,’’ Mackie said.
‘‘What happens if overseas growers then dump their product into another country and suddenly New Zealand is out of peaches – because we aren’t going to turn around and plant and wait five years only for it to happen to us again.’’
Mackie predicted ‘‘a couple thousand’’ jobs were at stake.
Heinz Wattie’s managing director Mike Pretty said the changes could spell ‘‘disaster’’ for the industry.
of Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule said the council would not stand by and watch as jobs and revenue were lost to the region.
Mackie said it appeared the peach-growing industry had been caught up in moves to free up construction imports and might become ‘‘collateral damage’’.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which oversees the anti-dumping legislation, said it was conducting a ‘‘bounded public interest test’’ into the laws.
‘‘[It] will bring greater balance to the anti-dumping and countervailing duties regime by allowing broader public interest elements, such as competition and consumer welfare elements [for example, how the duties would impact on prices, product and service quality, and consumer choice] to be considered before the duties are imposed on imported goods,’’ an MBIE spokeswoman said.
The ministry plans to replace the present system with an ‘‘automatic termination period’’.
Under this scenario, cans will be allowed to be imported. Growers and canners will then have to prove that they have been adversely affected.
Pretty said that during the period while any damage was established, the industry would ‘‘haemorrhage’’.
MBIE said submissions would ‘‘inform any final policy recommendations which will be considered by Cabinet in due course’’.
‘‘While the Government is looking at its dumping regime, no decision has been made on an automatic termination period. MBIE is listening to and analysing feedback from the industry.
‘‘This feedback will inform any final policy recommendations which will need to be considered by Cabinet in due course,’’ MBIE said.
The World Trade Organisation defines a dumped product as one where a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market. Such product could be the result of overproduction with a plan to make a ‘‘distressed sale’’.
The James Wattie cannery first began processing peaches in Hawke’s Bay in 1934.