By Sally Murphy of RNZ
A Levin vegetable grower says demand for Asian greens has increased by nearly 400 per cent in the last couple of years.
Woodhaven Gardens has grown some Asian greens for about 20 years but ramped up plantings four years ago after seeing growing demand in the market.
Company director Jay Clarke said they grew Shanghai bok choi, pak choi, wombok or Chinese cabbage, Saigon turnip and coriander.
"We started with some trials and things have really taken off, we've seen some of our traditional lines coming back in volume and becoming less popular things like green cabbage and iceberg lettuce but the shanghai bok choi, wombok and Saigon turnip have really grown in popularity," Clarke said.