Kevin and Anne-Marie Evans at home in Athenree. Photo / Alison Smith.
Kevin and Anne-Marie Evans at home in Athenree. Photo / Alison Smith.
Roadside fruit stalls proliferated in the area from Bethlehem north when Kevin Evans moved to Athenree to grow avocados in 1994.
Kevin has spent all his life growing food or fibre. He and wife Anne-Marie's respect for productive land is shared by daughter Rochelle Kean, who manages the family's two orchards near Waihi Beach to the north.
The Evans and other Katikati growers are positive about a new Government policy aimed at protecting the country's productive soils.
Just a thin strip of land between mountains and sea in this area holds fertile soils that make Katikati the avocado capital of New Zealand.
The National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land is being welcomed by growers spoken to by Katikati Advertiser, as it requires councils to identify, map and protect land like theirs for food production, not subdivisions. It comes into force on October 17.
Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor said the new policy enhances protection for our highly productive land - giving farmers, growers and other food producers certainty, and greater economic security for all New Zealanders.
"Our cities and towns need to grow but not at the expense of the land that's best suited to grow our food."
About 15 per cent of New Zealand's land is categorised as highly productive. Over 20 years, about 35,000 hectares have been developed nationally, while 170,000 hectares of this land have been converted to lifestyle blocks.
In Pukekohe, housing has taken out 200ha of top-quality arable soil in one decade.
Councils, in limited circumstances, will still be able to rezone highly productive land for urban housing if less productive land is not available, or if certain tests can be met.
The policy will introduce strong restrictions on the use of highly productive land for new rural lifestyle developments.
While Katikati grows more avocados than just about anywhere in the country, the soils would support more crops if growers didn't face the challenges that they do - housing development being one.
From Kevin's perspective: "The whole route from Bethlehem is under roofing and concrete now. If it extends into Papamoa, that's not so bad. But we can't have it come into the productive land.
"If people want to have affordable food, they've got to look after the specific areas for growing it. The fertile flat land in the Bay of Plenty is a pretty unique commodity. It's a food bowl.
"It's called the Bay of Plenty for a reason."
Losing the ability to "farm survey pegs" in downturns will impact the potential future wealth of these growers' children and grandchildren, yet they are supportive of the policy changes.
Avocado growers Kevin and Anne-Marie Evans of Athenree at their residence. Photo / Alison Smith
Wyn Daniell, who owns a macadamia orchard on uniquely productive soil, says the announcement "was well-telegraphed".
He and wife Chris own Harbourside Macadamias in Katikati and know the land is uniquely valuable for growing macadamias as well as housing - the business name of Harbourside is a clue.
"It puts a certain different twist not being able to subdivide. Despite that, I'm all for it. Our place has the highest rate of production per unit of land area in Australiasia, a combination of our soil and climate. To the extent that people want macadamias, it shouldn't be turned into houses."
Potatoes New Zealand vice chairman Bharat Bhana says advocates of private property rights believe land should be able to be sold to the highest bidder.
"What I believe is as growers we wear a grower's hat first, not our retirement hat. As growers we should be looking at what we need the soil for, and that's for vegetables.
"Our grandparents cleared the land to grow vegetables on, but if today we're growing houses, then 100 years from now they won't ever be able to grow vegetables again."
Kevin and Anne-Marie live away from their avocado orchards, on 1.7ha previously owned by Snow (Maurice) Garde-Browne, whose family fed a significant amount of soldiers during the war effort.
Their Athenree home and garden was one of four home sites on the 16ha left of Snow's landholding.
It is one of the last remaining flat areas not developed for housing in Athenree, Kevin says.
Increasing residential neighbours bring complaints about horticultural practices, and growers say the compliance has forced smaller producers out of the market.
"We've got 8ha of avocados on our orchards and we're spending $3000 a year to fill out forms. We can afford it because we've got economies of scale, but someone smaller can't," says Kevin.
The planning term for this is "reverse sensitivity" and it's covered in the national policy, where the soil comes first.
Councils must include rules in their district plans that identify typical activities so they are anticipated and tolerated in a productive rural environment.
Bharat Bhana says new neighbours moving in next to his elite-soil fields mean his costs rise, which can only be passed on to consumers. He's had to do a letter drop every three weeks to notify neighbours of essential agricultural work, like spraying or tractor work.
"Even if we've got two houses next to us that complain it's too noisy or too windy, we would be in trouble.
"In New Zealand there's a lot of unnecessary compliance costs, and you've got to allocate it to something. What will happen is people will say 'I can't do it for that price anymore' and they won't grow it?
