Constrained by Covid: North Island growers grapple with crate shortages

North Island vegetable growers are hoping the worst is over after dealing with crate and pallet supply shortages in the run-up to Christmas.

Glenys Christian

Growers were well aware that shortage might occur due to a change to collapsible crates, and also having to deal exclusively with crate suppliers, to send produce to North Island Foodstuffs from 1 April last year.

As well as there being fewer crates in circulation some growers had concerns about the crates being returned to them not being hygienically cleaned. “It’s all fine now but the damage has been done,” says one grower. The plan was to make the changeover coming into winter with the lower levels of produce supply, but Covid-19 intervened, causing manufacturing delays and shipping congestion. That meant new crates that had been ordered and were expected to arrive from China in spring were only delivered in December 2021 and January 2022. To make matter worse, some growers held onto crates out of concern they might not have enough to transport their produce, meaning other growers were left short. Some were forced to use crates which North Island Foodstuffs said they wouldn’t accept, others were able to use cardboard packaging and some ran out of other options altogether. “We got by but we sailed close to the wind,” says NZ Hothouse managing director, Simon Watson. It worked out in NZ Hothouse’s favour, after a fashion, that tomato production was reduced due to bad weather, a closing of export markets and a shortage of labour to harvest the crop, meaning the shortage of crates was more manageable. Head of growing at T&G Global, Ben Smith, says T&G Global worked closely with crate supply company, Viscount FCC to get through. “We’ve passed the worst,” he says. Regan Hill, who took over as general manager of Viscount FCC at the end of November, says there have always been crate supply and demand imbalances. To combat that, the company has made several large investments in its business assets of crates and pallets, as well as in the operation of its three wash plants. A total of 112,000 new crates arrived in New Zealand between December 2021 and January 2022, resulting in a ten percent increase in the company’s total pool. There had been an increase of 32,000 H39-litre crates mainly used by tomato growers, 57,000 H47 crates and 22,000 extra H61 crates.

“It’s made a difference,” Regan says. “And we’ll continue to keep purchasing more crates.” The company is confident its orders of 65,000 new crates split between H39 and H47 sizes will arrive, as expected, in April and May as its Chinese manufacturer has already completed the order. There are enough of the H61-litre crates, used for pumpkins and watermelon, already in circulation he says. Regan anticipates making further crate purchases through 2022 in order to get a better balance between supply and demand.

Viscount FCC has also made operational efficiencies and investment at its three wash plants in Mount Wellington, Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch to increase their capacity by ten percent. More gains are planned for throughout 2022 by bringing in weekend overtime for workers at its Auckland plant – which usually runs 24 hours a day, five days a week. Part of that plan is to have dirty crates washed within 48 hours for growers to come and pick up.