While the move to Alert Level three is encouraging for businesses south of Auckland some will still struggle, despite restrictions easing.
Small growers grappling with too much fresh produce and nowhere to sell it have been forced to throw it out.
1 NEWS spoke to several Otago produce businesses feeling the pinch.
“We thought we were in a business that was providing fresh healthy produce to the local community which it has been for the last 20 years so it is very frustrating that we are hamstrung by the rules ,” says Rodger Whitson of Janefield Paeonies and Hydroponics.
About 80 per cent of Whitson's product is sold at the local farmers market. He says he’s used to having around 500 customers every Saturday morning.
Jono Walker of Farmers' Markets NZ says some growers are “just giving up and throwing the food away”.
For Walker, the online option is too expensive to operate and he's not accredited to supply supermarkets.
However, his produce doesn't stop growing and with no market, it's being wasted.
“It's absolutely crazy, it's some of the best freshest most nutritious food that you can buy or normally can buy but we can't sell it at the moment,” Walker says.
Whitson's looked at donating some of his produce to food banks but even that comes at a major cost.
“It’s cheaper for us to throw it out than give it away because you've still got to process it, you've got to pack it - you've still got to chill it and deliver it,” Whitson says.
In other countries like Australia and the US, farmers markets are an essential service but not in New Zealand.
The Otago Farmers Market is one of the largest in the country, every weekend people flock to it but now it's dead.
“What is the difference between a supermarket where people are filing through, than the Otago Farmers Market where everybody can file through and it can be in a controlled environment?” asks Whitson.
Walker agrees.
“It's just frustrating that farmers markets aren’t being treated in the same way as supermarkets are being treated, it's a little bit strange particularly as almost all of the farmers markets are outside and that is better with fresh air."
SHARE ME