Recovery resources for growers

The Government has passed an Order in Council - Severe Weather Emergency Recovery (Resource Management—Burning of Waste) Order 2023. This is a result of advocacy by the Horticulture Action Group (HAG), NZ Apples & Pears, and HortNZ.   
 
The order came into force on 5 July 2023. It allows the burning of waste in the open air only if the owner or the occupier or their authorised person:

• Burns the waste on rurally zoned land in the Gisborne District or Hawke's Bay Region, outside of the Hastings and Napier Air Sheds
• Complies with the permitted activity standards in the Order of Council
• All burning activity must cease by 1 November.

 The permitted activity standards stipulate:

• Actions required before waste burning
• The content of a fire management plan
• Conditions that must be during the burning
• Actions that are required after the waste burning.

The detail is provided in the Order of Council, which you can view here. 

Fire management in the Hawke's Bay

Click here to link to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council's fire management plan portal.  

HortNZ has put together information to guide growers on obtaining resource consents for cyclone related work. 

Click here to access this advice

Advice as at 16 May 2023

Guidelines for removal of silt from orchards, market gardens and agricultural land 

Guidelines for accidental discoveries during silt removal

Previous advice 

• Silt collection from rural and urban properties across the Heretaunga area is being co-ordinated by the Hastings District Council
• If you need silt collected, phone 0800 108 838 and register your request
• You do not have to have piled the silt up yet. You just need to have decided that you want it collected from your property
• When you phone, you will be asked to classify the silt generally as either clean, mixed, contaminated or woody silt. This classification will help the council understand which of the disposal sites it needs to go to
• Please also estimate the volume of silt if you can as this would be helpful
• Someone will then visit your property to have a look at the silt and confirm what type/s it is and provide a chance for you to ask questions
• The council will then organise collection. Timing will vary depending on silt type, location of your property etc, but the council will do its best to collect the silt as soon as possible
• You will need to have piled up the silt for the council contractors when they come to collect it. If you can tell the council when you ring them when you hope to have that work done, it will help them plan their collections. 

If you think you may need to make some of your staff redundant now or in the future, Work and Income may be able to redeploy your staff. If you've had to make your staff redundant or reduce their hours, Work and Income may also be able to help.

For more information, click here

For information on redundancy, and the process an employer must follow, go to the Employment New Zealand website, by clicking below. 

Information about the legal redundancy process

Zespri has developed a flood recovery resource specific to kiwifruit growers. 

View the resource here

The following guidance has been developed by Summerfruit New Zealand, AgFirst and Horticentre as an orchard-specific resource to assist cyclone-affected growers in their orchard recovery.

View the orchard soil and tree remediation resource here

LandWISE has published flood-related resources that may be of use to growers that are looking at how to re-establish their land and crop after Cyclone Gabrielle. Please note, these resources are not specific to this weather event and may not cover all scenarios. 

Click here for more soil repair and silt resources from LandWISE