Greens Call For Urgent Inquiry Into Food Factory Closures

We grow the food — but we’re losing the ability to eat it.

That’s the quiet crisis unfolding inside New Zealand’s food system right now. Because as factories shut their doors, it’s not just jobs disappearing — it’s the infrastructure that turns local produce into the affordable food sitting on your table. And once that’s gone, we don’t just lose capacity. We lose control.

The Green Party is calling for an urgent select committee inquiry into the closure of key food processing plants — because what’s being lost here isn’t just factories, it’s the backbone of how New Zealand feeds itself.

Green Party spokesperson for agriculture Steve Abel, a Member of the Primary Production Select Committee, has written to the Committee raising serious concern at the closure of long-standing food production facilities.

“Understanding the scale of the impact and risks is urgent that the Primary Production Select Committee should open an inquiry into,” says Steve Abel.

What happens when we lose the ability to feed ourselves?

“The closures of Heinz Watties, Greggs, and McCain food manufacturing sites have implications for New Zealand’s food resilience and security, will cause significant job losses, and threaten the viability of local vegetable growers.”

“The closures, if they go ahead, will reduce local vegetable processing capacity and compromise New Zealand’s ability to feed itself with local produce.”

“For a lot of families, frozen vegetables are how they get affordable, nutritious food on the table. We need to understand what losing this processing capacity means for them.”

So why are these factories actually closing?

“There is little public information about what led to these factories closing. If the regulatory environment, energy costs, foreign-owner indifference to New Zealand interests, or anti-competitive behaviour from supermarkets is the problem, the public have a right to know.”

“We are drifting towards dependency on imported food, and that puts our food security, food sovereignty, and resilience at real risk.”

“I am calling on all parties in Parliament to support this urgent inquiry as a matter of national significance for New Zealand’s food system,” says Abel.