July 13, 2023
Wet summer could shift kumara industry
Māori potato export Nick Roskruge says the centre of commercial kumara growing may have to move because of climate change.
This year’s crop around Ruawai and Dargaville on the north Kaipara was hit by flooding which meant a lot of the crop had to be ploughed back in.
Professor Roskruge from Massey University says heavy and persistent rain also meant plants did not have enough skin growth for long term storage.
He says conditions could be better further south.
“From a commercial point of view, if you go up north for sub-tropical-type crops – which makes sense because the weather is warming up in that way. But you come down to us in the Manawatu – we’ve had a very good summer. We’ve had probably the best kumara crops for a long time, but we don’t grow them at a commercial scale. So maybe we should,” Professor Roskruge says.
Developing more water-resistant kumara would take years and would not be an easy process.