Vegetables: Spring supply expected to be plentiful, price rises to ease

Cabbages and other leafy greens should be plentiful this spring, a grower group says. Photo / Unsplash / Arnaldo Aldana

RNZ

The supply of spring vegetables should be plentiful and massive price hikes seen a year ago are not on the cards, according to a grower group.

United Fresh president Jerry Prendergast said following good winter planting conditions, vegetables are ready for harvest now and, provided no hail or frosts arrive, consumers will have lots of choices.

Loose-leaf green vegetables of all types will be coming out of Pukekohe, Horowhenua, Tasman and even the Gisborne region.

“Anything that we constantly call leafy greens - brassicas, anything right through from coriander to cabbage, it’s quite a positive crop in the ground,” he said.

Leafy green prices would also be slightly lower as supplies ramped up and inflationary pressures eased.

“What we will see is our next food price index for vegetables will not be sitting in those high percentiles,” Prendergast said.

There would still be a slight increase, but it would ease compared with the same period last year.

Prendergast said the big increases last spring had been well overdue with growers having absorbed price rises for many years prior.

- RNZ