New Zealand: Tasman hop crop value projected to grow to NZ$30 mln a year by 2020

The value of the Tasman hop crop is projected to grow to about NZ$30 million a year by 2020, driven by a rapidly growing craft beer industry in New Zealand and abroad, The Stuff.co.nz reported on August 19.

Staig & Smith resource management consultant Jackie McNae along with New Zealand Hops Limited chief executive Doug Donelan and the company's finance and commercial manager Steve Wilson, have urged Tasman District Council to give top priority to a review and expansion of the rural industrial zone along Blackbyre Rd to help with that growth.

McNae told a panel of councillors on August 19 at a hearing of submissions on proposed Plan Change 60 of the Tasman Resource Management Plan that Tasman was the only district in New Zealand growing hops on a commercial scale. More than 425 ha of hops was under production with plans for "significant expansion". The hop crop was projected to increase to about 600 ha by 2020, boosting its gross value from NZ$19 million to about NZ$30 mln.

After the hearing, Donelan stressed that total did not include any of the "significant" downstream value of the product.

McNae told the hearing panel that hops from the district were "highly valued" by craft brewers locally, nationally and internationally. It was the growing craft beer industry that was creating the biggest increase in demand.

The company had expanded across all of the land on its core processing, rural industrial-zoned site on the corner of Blackbyre Rd and the Appleby Highway. It wanted to further expand to a Blackbyre Rd site it owned next door and sought to have the zone changed from rural 1 to the more suitable rural industrial.

McNae said it was noted from a council officer's report that while steps for rezoning could not be taken within proposed Plan Change 60, staff had recommended to the council it was an issue the council should be considering.

"We urge the council to review your priorities for forward planning and give high priority to the issue of rural industrial zoning needs," she said. "The overarching issue for NZ Hops is the need to review and expand the rural industrial zoning at this location."

Friday was the third and final day scheduled for the panel to hear submissions on proposed Plan Change 60 covering rural land use and subdivision, which attracted 145 written submissions.

Hearing chairman Cr Stuart Bryant said the panel members were due to deliberate in the first week of September and hoped to have its recommendations go to the full council on September 22.

18 August, 2016