E-book – Greenhouse Energy Efficiency by Elly Nederhoff  published for all to access

You will remember that Elly Nederhoff, specialist in decarbonisation for the covered crop industry, published 15 articles in this magazine 2020-2021 on various aspects of this topic. These articles have been reworked and updated and are now free to download for all as a handy e-book. ‘Greenhouse Energy Efficiency: Growing more and better with less fuel in commercial greenhouses’ is a comprehensive work based on studies and learnings from the covered crop industry in the Netherlands. There are many changes that growers can make to conserve energy and boost production and not all of them are necessarily expensive to implement. It doesn’t matter if you’re already fully versed in decarbonisation in greenhouses or just tentatively starting this journey, the language used to describe concepts can be easily grasped by all. This project was jointly funded by TomatoesNZ and VegetablesNZ.

Download your free copy today: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/bb6l8oi4bg

Or email me for a printable version Dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz

Reminder to pay your Tomato & Biosecurity Levy

Do you sell tomatoes directly? If yes you must pay the compulsory levy directly to Tomatoes NZ. This is in addition and separate from the HortNZ levy. It appears that a changeover in accounting systems has meant that reminders for direct levy payments for the last 2 financial years may have been missed being paid by some growers. Tomatoes NZ is in the process of sending out reminders but if you know that you are yet to pay yours, please make contact by emailing Dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz

Export Figures

Figures for fresh tomato exports were significantly down in 2021 which is no surprise given the ongoing issues with freight, a total of 1.3 million kg in 2021 versus just over 3 million in 2020.

Online AGM & Board Nominations

The TomatoesNZ Inc AGM will be held online via Zoom this year. We will be confirming the date and guest speaker later this month. In the meantime, if you are a Tomato Grower, please consider putting yourself forward to join the board. This is your opportunity to have a say in how levies are spent. Meetings are held 4 times a year plus the AGM and grower workshop. Please get in touch with me to find out more Dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz

Current board members Simon Watson and Mayank (Mike) Saklani retire by rotation this year and both have confirmed they will make themselves available for re-election. In addition, there is currently also one vacancy for an elected board member.