Could Hawke's Bay become NZ's next seeds powerhouse?

Plans to transform Hawke's Bay into a one-stop shop for the humble seeds sector with new infrastructure are being seen as a step towards a more resilient future for North Island growers.

A new seed cleaning, processing and storage facility was being proposed for Central Hawke's Bay, after the government approved a $3 million loan application from growers for the Regional Infrastructure Fund.

In a few of the government's final funding decisions ahead of last weekend's general election, it also approved a $1.5m loan for a new grain drying and 4000-tonne capacity storage facility for Carterton in nearby Wairarapa.

Recently announced closures of Hawke's Bay vegetable processing factories and Malteurop's Marton malthouse, the largest in the country, cast uncertainty over the season ahead for growers, farmers and workers.

Currently seed products were being trucked and shipped to Manawatū or even Canterbury for specialist services, so each project sought to reduce transport journey times.

This was while sustained high fuel prices continued to hurt New Zealand's primary industries this year, due to the US and Israel war with Iran that started in February.

Associate Minister for Regional Development Mark Patterson said the government hoped the two seed and grain investments would 'turbocharge' the sectors.

"Obviously, the arable sector and the small seeds sector are under a bit of pressure, so it's the government's way where we can show confidence in those particular industries that they are going to come out the other end," he said.

"We've got every confidence they'll turn this into a winner for Central Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa."

The minister also expected that creating the Wairarapa facility would support more than 300 workers in farming, transport and other contract roles.

Growers seek alternative to 'poor' infrastructure

Fifth generation Hawke's Bay arable farmer, Simon White of Ōtāne was part of a collective of growers pitching the seed facility concept to local representatives and politicians over recent years.

White said the need for seed and grain infrastucture across the area inspired the bid, as multinational firms again exited the region.

"The new proposed seed cleaning and dressing complex has come about not just off the back of the shutdown of McCain and Malteurop and Watties and things, it's been a project that we've been actively working on over the last couple of years.

"It's about this whole East Coast, all the communities between Hawke's Bay, Manawatū and Wairarapa.

"The lack of infrastructure in this area has been pretty poor, and so we've been looking at alternatives."

White ran a diverse farming system, growing a number of crops including cereals, vegetable seeds, stock feed, malting barley, hemp, and they also finished sheep and beef.

He said they supplied peas, sweetcorn and beans to McCain Foods for up to 40 years, and barley to Malteurop's malthouse for 20 years, so many in the sector were already considering their long-term future.

"Currently the high value seeds grown in the region are shipped and trucked down south which adds a huge cost," he said.

"Having some of that good infrastructure to be able to export straight out of Hawke's Bay allows us to open up these opportunities of getting investment into other infrastructure that traps the whole shooting box, so growing, processing and then exporting out of Hawke's Bay."

White said establishing another seed hub alongside Canterbury would allow the two areas to share the load whenever either faced a tough season dealt by Mother Nature.

He said it was about unlocking Hawke's Bay's potential in using its strengths of good soils, water and sunlight hours to grow the high-value sector.

He accepted there was still a lot of work ahead, including fundraising $750,000 required for the government loan, which he was optimistic could be raised among growers.

One-stop shop growing, drying, processing seeds - mayor

The bid to boost local seed processing attracted the interest of Central Hawke's Bay mayor Will Foley.

Foley said the new project will build on the $1.4m seed drying facility in Ōtāne the Government helped back with a loan previously that was working well.

He said the efforts were about giving its people and farmers diversified options to thrive in the region.

"This is some welcome news for our arable growers in Hawke's Bay.

"This further investment now is stage two of seed processing, which means that we become a one-stop shop for growing and drying and processing seeds ready for sale again.

"It just saves transport to other regions and cutting out costs and just making us more productive and efficient in our own region."

Foley said it worked closely with farmers to understand their needs.

He said the decisions by McCain Foods and Wattie's to close factories impacted the regional economy and the food supply chain.

"It's been a rocky time for our arable growers this year following the closure of McCain and Wattie's facilities, so to have this investment means our district's primary sector can develop the infrastructure for diversifying our offerings.

"We've just gone to work with if we can do anything to salvage and take over and do a lot of these things ourselves, the hole that McCain's have left by exiting the industry."

Meanwhile, a bid by growers to explore taking over the factory after the closure announcement recently collapsed.

Foley said it wanted to develop options for diversification, including bolstering water storage options.

Water storage too was on the mind of Patterson, also the Minister for Rural Communities, who said water infrastructure would be a real game changer for the regions, citing proposed projects including the Tukituki Water Security Project, formerly the Ruataniwha Dam, and the Whanawhana dam.

High-value seed exports earned around $339 million in the year to last June, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries Situation and Outlook for the Primary Industries report in June.

These were led by vegetable seeds, then ryegrass, clover, legume seeds and other grains like maize.

The report forecast a 4 percent dip in the value of seed exports in the year to this June.