My business partner, Darcy, has been travelling in West Africa and sending back colourful, warm photos, which make holding the fort here, in the depths of a Dunedin winter, a little challenging!
I am a foodie, so when I travel, I always come back with a ridiculous number of food shots. I have been eating vicariously through his food photos from the Ivory Coast. Below is fried plantain, a kind of savoury banana that’s a staple food in that region.
Traditional West African diets are rich in whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and fermented foods, offering high nutritional value and health benefits. However, as the global food chain shrinks to a few major players, West Africans are now eating more Western ultra-processed food. Sadly, this is accompanied by rising rates of obesity and chronic disease.
This year in New Zealand, I have been saddened to witness the demise of major horticultural and local food-producing companies. Some of it has happened here in Dunedin: the Gregg's factory on Forth St finished its last run of coffee a couple of weeks ago, closing a business that started in 1862. Its owner, Heinz Wattie's, is also shutting sites in Christchurch and Auckland and the frozen-packing lines in Hastings. The Christchurch closure leaves around 220 vegetable growers looking for a buyer. Hawke's Bay growers have had their own version: Wattie's cut contracts with about 20 peach suppliers last year, and McCain is closing its Hastings plant by January 2027, taking more than 100 growers' contracts with it.
It’s hard to know what the answers are; there are so many factors at play, including:
👉🏼Australian bank ownership driving up land values, putting pressure on farmers to increase return on their investments (and lower land diversification)
👉🏼International corporate ownership of our food factories, who then choose to buy cheaper imports instead of home-grown
👉🏼Duopolistic supermarket systems putting further pressure on growers by driving down prices
👉🏼More volatile weather events for growers to recover from
👉🏼Challenges of supply chain integrity.
These challenges are greater than one government can overcome and require a cross-party strategy. The fact that Darcy is seeing the same challenges hindering the West African food supply systems is a good reminder that these challenges are truly global.
So, it’s easy to feel a little hopeless; what we can do is support local. I do that by buying food from the Dunedin Farmers’ Market every week; telling people what I bought and why (word of mouth is gold); and at Zestt Wellness, we use New Zealand ingredients and companies wherever possible.
The challenge, of course, is that New Zealand products are more expensive (partly because of the land-value issues identified above). But the counter to not doing this is loss of locally grown and produced food and products. That’s a high price to pay for our health as a community.
So, to you, as a Zestt customer, thank you. We notice every single order, and no customer is taken for granted. And I look forward to Darcy’s return; it will certainly make things noisier around here!