Central Hawke's Bay mayor questions Wattie's, McCain closures in 'pretty good food producing region'

The mayor of Central Hawke's Bay says the region has been hit hard by back-to-back announcements of factory closures.

On Friday Heinz Wattie's confirmed it would go ahead with shutting its frozen packing lines in Hastings, as well as manufacturing sites in Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland.

The closures would affect about 300 jobs, although some people might be redeployed.

The decision came in the same week McCain Foods announced it would close its Hastings vegetable processing plant.

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Will Foley said it was a huge blow.

"It's just come at a really bad time when there's a lot of bad news happening out there and a lot of pressure on households and businesses already with increased costs, uncertainty and now you've got people's jobs that are lost, and associated businesses that would've lost a lot of work as well directly for this supply chain," he said.

"I guess we're all sitting here wondering why what we think is a pretty good food producing region is struggling to produce and compete with imported food products. That's what we need to get to the bottom of and work out why is that happening and what can we do to address it."

Buy NZ Made, an organisation that supports Kiwi-made products, said the closures were a stark reminder of the mounting pressures local producers faced.

Executive director Dane Ambler said they were facing rising costs, weaker demand and competition with international firms.

"I think now is really the time to get behind local producers. I think we need much stronger and more deliberate backing of New Zealand made goods and services both by government and consumers," he said.

"The government can go a long way to ensuring that local industries survive by basically changing procurement practices that prioritise local suppliers and targeted support. I don't think that New Zealand made businesses have needed as much support as they need right now."

Canterbury vegetable grower Alastair Clemens, who grew processed peas and carrots for Heinz Wattie's in Barrhill, said the closures were devastating for growers.

"A lot of guys in our area grow processed peas, there might be 30 or 40 growers in our area that grow processed peas that had gone to the factory in the past, so that's quite a hole left there that's got to be filled up with something," he said.

"Processed carrots have been a significant part of our rotation for quite a number of years, we're sort of investigating other options for them.

"The area we're in is good for root crops, potatoes and carrots and that sort of thing, so we'd like to think we could find something for that but it does leave a pretty big gap and it is pretty devastating really."

Clemens said he might end up growing food for the dairy industry, or becoming one of the "many people who are converting to cows" because that was where the money and demand was at the moment.

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