Product Group

Structure Product Group Activities

Structure

The Fresh Vegetable Product Group has six Crop Advisory Groups:

• Allium crops
• Brassica crops
• Covered crops
• Leafy crops
• Root and tuber crops
• Stalks, vines, bulbs and herb crops

The members of the Crop Advisory Groups are directly elected by the growers within each of those groups. The Chairman of each of the Crop Crop Advisory Groups sits on the Product Group Board. The Product Group also has an independent Chairman directly elected by all fresh vegetable growers.

The Product Group's mission is: "To be a strong, unified and well resourced professional fresh vegetable producer organisation giving positive leadership in all aspects of industry development and promoting opportunities to maximise returns to its members."

It aims to advance the interests of fresh vegetable growers by:

• Being active as a political lobby group to Government, local bodies, and industry organisations to ensure growers' views are presented.
• Promoting the consumption of quality fresh vegetables and their economic and health benefits to current and new markets.
• Conducting research that provides relevant information on industry direction, trends, marketing mechanisms, performance, existing and future impediments, markets, and opportunities.

Product Group Activities

Product Group Annual Reports and Chairman's Addresses

2010: The Product Group annual report can be downloaded by clicking here. The Chairman's Address can be downloaded by clicking here. 

2009: The Product Group annual report can be downloaded by clicking here. The Chairman's Address can be downloaded by clicking here. 

2008: The Product Group annual report can be downloaded by clicking here. The Chairman's Address can be downloaded by clicking here. 

Research and Development

The Committee has decided it will fund three new projects this year as well as meeting its potential new commitments to the second stage of the Vital Vegetables Project. These are over and above the funding required for existing project commitments.

The three new projects, two of which are still subject to approvals by MAF's Sustainable Farming Fund are:

• Beneficial Processes for Insect Pest Management in South Island Brassica Systems (diamond backed moth & others)
• Holding it Together – Soils for Sustainable Vegetable Cropping
• Knowledge Transfer on Soil borne Diseases of Vegetables (co-funding for a larger FRST funded programme)

The first project team meeting for the Aphid Resistance Project in Brassicas was held mid June. This is a 3 year project with total funding of $190,000 that is being funded jointly by Fresh Vegetable Product Group and AGMARDT.

Insecticide resistance is observed in insects such as aphids as a result of natural mutations or genetic changes that allow insects to survive insecticide applications. With successive applications of these insecticides these mutated individuals come to dominate the population and product failure is observed. DNA detection technologies have been developed that allow researchers to identify if a population has individuals with the mutation that confers resistance. Product recommendations can then be made to ensure an efficacious product is applied.

This project contains ground breaking work and the project team is expecting some very useful and promising outcomes for growers to utilise in their cropping regimes.