YOUR INDUSTRY PUKEKOHE
PUKEKOHE GROWERS FACE DEVIL IN PLAN CHANGE DETAIL Words by Geoff Lewis : Photographs by Trefor Ward
Spanning the Waikato and Auckland boundary, Hira Bhana is a family-run cropping operation which provides fresh vegetables for domestic and export purposes. Crops including onions are exported to the United Kingdom, Germany, Indonesia, Asia, Fiji and to other Pacific islands. Carrots and potatoes are mostly exported to Fiji and neighbouring countries. With many other horticultural operations, Hira Bhana has had an unsettled year coping with the Covid-19 emergency and facing mounting concerns around legislation which will impact on the ability of growers to run their businesses. Bharat Bhana is the director of Hira Bhana, and past president and life member of the Pukekohe Vegetable Growers Association. Bharat said Hira Bhana employs labour all year round, with employees travelling from as far as Mangere and Otahuhu. ‘’When Covid-19 hit, like all essential businesses in New Zealand, we gave our people the option to come to work or not. We are an essential industry, so we needed to be working. 32
NZGROWER : AUGUST 2020
Bharat Bhana, director of Hira Bhana
‘’There were a lot of people working around the clock to keep the country fed and keep our business going. Some growers took a hit when smaller outlets closed meaning a portion of produce went to waste.’’ Bharat said how the coming season would go will depend on what people want to spend money on. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Covid-19. At the moment people have free money (government support schemes); when that stops 80,000 workers won’t have a job. Even with interest rates low, we’re not going to be back to normal for a while and we have to pay it back sometime.” However, larger on the horizon for Bharat Bhana are issues arising from the Waikato Regional Council’s PC1 (Plan Change 1), and the effect it will have on their ability to do what they know how to do – reliably produce food. The PC1 gives effect to the 2014 National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management and a ‘vision and strategy for the Waikato and Waipa river catchments’. It introduces a set of rules to regulate farming activities and control the discharge of nutrients to land and into waterways. ‘’With the new rules under the Resource Management Act, any rules relating to water have immediate legal effect from the date of notification. Waikato Regional Council date of notification was 22 April 2020.
