Processing peas : a survey of growers’ returns 1967/68

In recent years, some 12,000 acres in New Zealand has been used for green pea production for processing. The greater proportion of this land is in Hawkes Bay, but commercial crops are also grown in Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury and South Canterbury. There are five main processing firms which let advance contracts to growers, supply many essential inputs, and usually provide harvesting services as well. Finding markets for the resulting product, usually frozen peas, is undertaken by these firms. With the devaluation of the New Zealand dollar in November 1967, the prospect for exports of frozen peas improved markedly and greater sales were negotiated in both Australia and England. During 1968, the processing firms enlarged their operations in anticipation of greater export contracts, and over 15,000 acres is now under crop. Although devaluation has made exports a worthwhile economic proposition at present, internal costs of production could easily increase too rapidly to maintain this situation and to preserve an adequate return to growers of processing peas. With this problem in mind, the New Zealand Vegetable and Produce Growers' Federation commissioned the Agricultural Economics Research Unit in late 1967 to undertake a cost of production survey in Hawkes Bay and Canterbury for the 1967/68 growing season. The Federation had commissioned an earlier report from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management at Massey College, and this private report was available for comparative purposes. It is referred to in the text below as the Massey Report. Owing to a difference in approach to the measurement of indirect costs on farms the two surveys are not exactly comparable and this should be borne in mind in making comparisons from the results given.