We're 5 million people in New Zealand
we need to feed ourselves
the risk is, if we become too costly to produce this product, it will be imported
we're only as good as those supply chains, be it air or sea to get product to us
and it wouldn't take much for the economics not to exist
and all of a sudden, we don't have that food coming to New Zealand
we really need to make sure that the horticulture industry
plus those other primary sectors are really looked after by New Zealand
we can't rely on other countries to feed New Zealand
we need to take that on ourselves
this is Hamish Alexander, he's the founder
and I'm Blair Morris, the general manager
here at Southern Paprika in Warkworth
We're based just outside of Warkworth
26 hectares of glass house growing predominantly capsicums
we produce just under 7 million kilos of capsicums per year
predominantly for the domestic market with about 20% exported offshore
Hamish and Robyn Alexander started the business as Alexander Cropping Limited
they were growing melons and capsicums, leasing land and field cropping
and they decided the way forward was to put the operation under glass
they built a one hectare glass house out at Point Wells
and they switched to predominantly capsicum growing
Hamish and Robin could see the opportunity, the market demand
that was growing both internationally and domestically
and they could see they needed to scale up
they talked to the Levarht family, which is a third generation marketing company
based in Holland, and they decided to create a joint venture
which has developed into what we've got today
if there's going to be more people in the world
we have to produce more food, off a lot less area
we've got 26, 27 hectares
you would need hundreds of hectares of field crop to do this
so that's why I strongly believe the glass house industry has got a huge future.
It's logical
sustainability is not just environmental, but it's also commercial
it's got to go hand in hand so
every piece of energy or any piece of input that we're using
we're trying to maximize what we do
we're capturing the water from the sky, we're storing it
we're re-using the water, topping it up, feeding it to the plants
recapturing that water and recycling it, and going again
the growing media that they're grown in, plus the strings, plus the leaves all gets mulched
composted and removed out to the avocado orchard that SPL is a 50% owner in
anything that doesn't meet the customer's standards we then provide
to the local farmers who use it and feed their stock
even the wastewater that we do have, that goes to the farmer's land as well
so, nothing's wasted
we want to be ahead of the game before we're forced into it
it's not actually government regulation that will force it
it's the supermarkets we sell to say
'this is what the consumer wants, and this is what we have to do'
so, it's pretty simple, you go with what your customer wants
we're currently going through quite a significant process to say
how do we remove our reliance on fossil fuels
but the key is we've still got to make a low cost operation
keep the product available at the right price so that keeps the consumption up
we have got a big community here of Kiribas and Tuvalu team members
people don't understand the sacrifices they make to actually come down here
just to get to, to Kiribas sometimes for these guys to register for the pack scheme
is a two or three day boat trip, you know, it's not easy
it's a great scheme and New Zealand should be supporting the Pacific
that's our sort of home patch
without that community that we support
we wouldn't have a business that runs as well as we do
the relationships, the respect that people have for the business and for Hamish and Robin
it does work really well
coming from an office environment more so
I'm always blown away about the ability to jump on a bike and go and
check the crop and talk with the operations staff
we're in 26 hectares of glorious crop
it's tangible, it's real
and you know it's only producing a good thing for New Zealand