Pea growers were forced out of business in August 2016 when action kicked in to eradicate a pea weevil pest threatening the $150 million pea industry, including both the export pea seed markets and the processed green pea industry.
Affecting about 1200 hectares of pea growing across 60 properties the moratorium was estimated to cost Wairarapa farmers about $15m as the Ministry for Primary Industries and local pea growers launched the attack on the newly discovered weevil that created havoc in pea crops.
Now, through the third season of the moratorium, Wairarapa cropping farmers are on the countdown for the return of peas.
The response governance has considered the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group and the news is good for farmers.
“We are close to successfully eradicating pea weevil and we have agreed we will continue the moratorium for one more year until the end of the 2019-20 season,” Williams said.
“So one more year it’s no peas and while some farmers are disappointed it’s not this year it is good news for farmers.
“We carefully considered three future options and we agreed one more year is the right thing to do.”
The three options included continuing the controlled area ban on growing peas and moving pea straw for at least another year, reducing the size of the controlled area to let parts of the region grow peas or to strop the response now.
“We have done the hard yards now so it’s really critical we finish the last step.
“If we start waving the flag of eradication it’s not a powerful message right now. Give us another 12 months and we will have the powerful message.
“We have all been in this together, taken the hit together so we should all come out the other side together,” Williams said.
The MPI market access group said to declare NZ free of pea weevil at least two years with no detections are required by overseas customers.
If traps detect no weevils at the end of the 2019-20 season the response will end successfully.
Masterton farmer Peter McKenzie said the best money is usually in peas and the biggest impact of the moratorium was in the first year as alternative options were found.
“I’m an established farmer so I haven’t worried too much once we got through that first season and got into the system without peas but it will be good to get peas back.”
McKenzie and his son David are mixed cropping and sheep farmers and plan their cropping rotations in conjunction with their sheep breeding operation.
“We’ve always grown feed barley and seed barley. We tried wheat the first year of no peas but it was hard to get in the system for a contract and the prices were not good so that wasn’t so successful.”
The next year McKenzie went for malting barley and that’s filled the void for a couple of years now.
Over the years McKenzie has grown anything from six hectares up to 50ha of peas, depending on the contracts.
The financial hit aside, McKenzie said the biggest issue of the pea ban has been the lack of choice.
“We could grow peas, get them harvested early and get the grass in and growing for the lamb crop.
“We are 50-50 sheep and cropping so it’s not been all just about cropping for us.”
McKenzie acknowledged there are a lot of farmers much worse off.
“Having the sheep has helped. Lambs have been really good so that’s helped pull us through.
“But I am looking forward to peas as an option for 2021.”
Having had the compulsory pea stand-down McKenzie is planning to build his pea harvest back to 25ha.
“We were working on refreshing the ground so the side benefit is that’s been done now and when we do get the peas back in we should get better yields.”
McKenzie said getting compensation has been time consuming.
“We got that first year done and then the next year went more smoothly and with the harvest finished now for this season we are about to lodge our third year claim.
“I haven’t done the exact figures on that but I can tell you we would have lost more on wool than we have on the peas but that’s not the case for a lot (of pea growers).”
