Articles
HORTICULTURE AND THE NEW ZEALAND ECONOMY SOME SUGGESTED DEVELOPMENTS IN HORTICULTURAL ECONOMICS
Increasing freight costs and the import policies of her trading partners, as well as the increasing cost of necessary imports, are threatening New Zealand’s standard of living.
While the New Zealand horticulture industry provides only around 2 ½ per cent of total export earnings, its growth potential is such that its export earnings (f.o.b.) could double over the next six years to reach $NZ 130 million.
Three problems are identified in realising this potential.
One concerns the possibility of trading partners maintaining or increasing protection of their domestic horticultural industries, by reducing access to their markets for imports from cost-efficient third-country suppliers.
The second involves the possible weakness of existing market arrangements.
The third is that New Zealand’s comparative production advantage could be eroded by rising freight costs unless efforts are continually made to determine most-profitable production technology.
Hence some developments in horticultural economics include a greater involvement of horticultural economists in determining the costs of horticultural protection and the evaluation of alternative strategies to solve the structural problems that exist in many countries.
They include attempts to evaluate the merits of alternative marketing institutions such as producer co-operatives and state marketing boards vis-a-vis the private trader, and a greater involvement of horticultural economists in integrated systems approaches to the evaluation of horticultural production techniques.