Growers affected by the pea-growing ban and eradication programme initiated in July 2016 after pea weevils were found in a Masterton seed store are eligible for compensation or ex-gratia payments.
But growers say it has been a “very slow, frustrating process”.
One grower got most of his ex-gratia payment for year one, the 2016-2017 season, but is still waiting on payment for this past season.
Many others were in the same boat, some having not even received payment for the first year.
“These growers are under immense pressure from their banks.
“This is causing a lot of grief, anxiety and stress that these growers don’t need,” the farmer said.
The growers had a meeting with MPI in Masterton on April 24.
“We voiced our concerns about the slow payment process and making the claim process more streamlined.
“Nothing’s happened. They promised they’d have it sorted within the next two weeks. Here we are 46 days later and we’ve heard nothing.”
Federated Farmers arable industry chairwoman and Pea Weevil Governance Group member Karen Williams said she had heard from a number of growers expressing concern over claims taking too long.
“Some of these are dating back to the first season and these are legitimate concerns. These payments shouldn’t be taking this long.”
Williams has been working with MPI to address why the payments are not coming though.
“On Monday (June 11) I received some comforting reassurance.
“By the end of the week MPI will be fully resourced in its (compensation) team so it seems the hold-up has been a lack of resource.”
Williams said she’s been assured MPI will be making contact with growers.
“I stressed that was essential as people are losing faith.”
Payments range from $1000 to $2000 a hectare.
“There has been some misunderstanding in expectation but that has largely been a lack of communication and that is what growers are really frustrated about.
“We just want to see some progress now and that’s fair coming into the third year.”
MPI readiness and response acting director Chris Rodwell said 128 applications for $2.3 million have been received. Almost $873,000 has been paid.
“We are working to get the remaining applications assessed and resolved as quickly as possible.
“We are attending a trap crop meeting in Wairarapa next week and look forward to being able to talk directly with affected pea growers,” Rodwell said.
“We are presently managing a high compensation workload associated with several large biosecurity responses and many of these applications are complex and require detailed or specialised assessment and verification.
“This has meant that our turnaround time for compensation applications is currently longer than we would like and we are putting in place a number of changes to get on top of the workload as quickly as possible.
