A Northland grower passionate about health, nutrition, and providing fresh produce at fair prices is fighting to keep vege and fruit prices down.
With vegetables and fruit at record highs due to a burgeoning cost-of-living crisis, causing many families to forgo them altogether, Kerikeri resident Joe Thistlethwaite is on a mission to keep their prices as low as possible.
With kūmara selling for $14 a kg at Countdown and $13.50/kg at New World, Thistlethwaite, who has been in the growing industry since he was a kid, can manage to sell the precious sweet spud for just $5/kg.
“We know we can do it cheaper,” he said
“Being in the industry for as long as we have, we know what we can get at what price.
“People have been a bit greedy for a bit too long. Kūmara shouldn’t be $14 a kg, it shouldn’t even be close to that.”
Family business
Thistlethwaite runs the business with his two brothers, Jack and Ben.
They source some of the fruit and vegetables from their family-owned orchard north of Waipapa, which they took over from their parents, who ran it for about 20 years.
Thistlethwaite has a stand at the Old Packhouse Market in Kerikeri seven days a week, Jack sells his fresh produce from a stall at Te Haumi near Paihia, and at Coopers Beach, while Ben takes care of the growing side of the business.
Their mum, Julia, helps grow the seedlings. This is the brothers’ second season selling in the Far North.
“I grew up on an orchard and have done this, since I was seven years old,” Thistlethwaite said.
Thistlethwaite, who has a diploma in nutrition and personal training, said he and his brothers keep prices low by selling whatever seasonal produce they can get from their orchard directly to the consumer.
They source anything else from local Northland growers, apart from the apples, which are from Hawke’s Bay, cutting out the middle man.
Kūmara is sourced from Dargaville and is significantly cheaper than most places because it’s not supermarket grade and is slightly smaller, Thistlethwaite said, though it still tastes exactly the same.
He also sells seedlings and encourages Northlanders to grow their own vegetables.
“Even if you can grow one or two things, it’s not that hard, but you also keep your costs down heavily.
“Especially during the cost-of-living crisis. You’re not spending $6 or $7 for a lettuce. It’s crazy the price of them sometimes.”
Fruit and vegetable prices increased 5.4 per cent in August 2023 compared with August 2022, new data from Stats NZ shows. In the year to July 2023, they increased 6.2 per cent.
Kūmara has continued to skyrocket, with data showing they were 234 per cent more expensive last month than in August 2022, with the per-kilo price increasing from $3.79 to $12.64.
Running out in October
Northland kūmara growers were slammed earlier this year after Cyclone Gabrielle tore through their crops following an entire summer of heavy rain and bad weather.
Northern Wairoa Vegetable Growers Association president Doug Nilsson said the cyclone was “the only reason” for the price hikes.
“We only have one harvest a year.
“The supply of kūmara is dwindling and our packhouse will be out of it next month.
“We won’t be packing kūmara till the end of January because there’s no supply.”
Nilsson said prices didn’t look likely to come down any time soon because it depended on the season.
“They’re not going to come down. We might have a drought this year and they might go up again. Growers were severely impacted financially.”
-NZME