Trade scheme changes welcomed by Tom’

Tomatoes New Zealand has welcomed the Government’s decision to extend transitional measures to reduce the initial cost impacts of the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) beyond 2012.

Wim Zwart, chair of Tomatoes New Zealand, said the move will be particularly welcomed by the country’s greenhouse vegetable growers.

“The ETS has had a major impact on production costs for many of New Zealand’s hothouse tomatoes growers, making them less competitive against those overseas growers who are not facing carbon costs.”

There are more than 200 tomato growers in New Zealand producing standard and specialty fresh tomatoes with a farm gate value of $90 million per annum. Last year the tomato export market was valued at approximately $15 million.

“This is a common sense decision that will allow our growers to continue to expand and grow the commercial export market,” said Wim.

“Many hothouse tomato growers have been investigating and introducing innovative measures to reduce emissions. This will provide them with some short term certainty around production costs and some more time to prepare for the long-term impacts of ETS.”