Vegetables planted since Cyclone Gabrielle are filling supermarket shelves, but now, NZ growers say they have a new problem: convincing people to buy them.
According to Chair of the Gisborne Growers Association, Calvin Gedye, there were a lot of vegetables on shelves and prices should come down, but it seemed that demand has dwindled. Gedye, who supplies vegetables to his own retail stores, saw sales halve over the last two weeks. Demand from other retail stores he supplied was also lower.
The cost of living had caught up with consumers, he said. There had also been a lot of publicity about high vegetable prices, and he believed that created some consumer resistance to buying fresh produce.
General manager of vegetable growing group Leaderbrand Richard Burke said he hoped the resumption of supply would help to bring prices down, but the industry had struggled to recover from flood damage from Cyclone Gabrielle.
Source: stuff.co.nz