Tuesday, April 7, 2026

McCain to shut Hastings plant

McCain to shut Hastings vegetable processing plant

McCain has announced it will close its Hastings vegetable processing plant by January 2027 after a review found no “sustainable pathway under the current model,” with production continuing through the current season and existing contracts honoured while the company shifts sourcing to “trusted supply partners.”

Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway told state media the closure would have a “massive impact,” saying many growers who rely on contracts for crops like peas, beans and sweet corn could be left with “nothing to grow” and face long transport distances to alternative processors.



He said farmers had invested heavily in infrastructure and raised concerns about offshore production potentially undercutting local supply, urging affected growers to seek support, as the move comes alongside a proposal by Watties to halt frozen vegetable production in New Zealand, affecting 220 Canterbury growers.

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12 COMMENTS

  1. We need to start Cooperative’s, where the the local Grower’s, and the actual Worker’s take ownership of the company, and profit dividend’s are then paid to each of the owner’s, (Worker’s & Grower’s) and kick this failed corporate BS inti touch.

  2. …urging affected growers to seek support…
    Well Jim Galloway, mate, you are obviously useless.
    What does it take farmers, the backbone of Godzone, to take ACTION?

  3. The down side of having really expensive houses, and everything else, is that the workers need higher wages which makes making things in NZ an unviable proposition. The only things that’s going to end being made in NZ is more legislation by the property developers in the Beehive.

    • Exactly. Why IS jousing so expensive? Why is land so expensive? Because our councils artificially restrict land use by corralling us all into zones, plus too many rules.

      We have off shored all our value adding, we are becoming a low skilled, underproducing country. Thanks to 4 decades of self serving pid off politicians. Roger Douglas did the most damage of all.

  4. So rather than relying on foreigners why not set up your own locally owned plants as a consortium and sell directly to Kiwi’s as a Kiwi run business.

  5. There are actually some small scale endeavours to align road side stalls, cooperative vendors and private sellers of homestead produce in online apps.
    I encourage like-minded persons who read this, to share this opportunity to place contemporary links to such apps/sites under this comment.
    Thank You Daily Telegraph New Zealand for your service.
    Share the link of this awesome publicaion to all your contacts:
    https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/
    If there are some contacts you are too worried about to share with…..they are not worthwhile contacts 😁

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