More than 100 growers sell to McCain’s frozen vegetable plant in Hastings, and the company plans to shut it. In May, two Hawke’s Bay mayors wrote to McCain with a request: hold off for eight weeks.
Hastings District Mayor Wendy Schollum and Central Hawke’s Bay Mayor Will Foley wanted any major changes to the plant paused while growers looked at an independent feasibility study. That study would test whether a grower-owned processing business could keep large-scale food manufacturing in the region. A group of growers is already weighing whether to take the operation over.
“We are asking for a short period to complete the work while the facility remains substantially intact,” Schollum said.
What McCain has said
The plant, on Omahu Rd in Twyford, handles more than 50,000 tonnes of vegetables a year, among them peas, beans, sweetcorn and carrots. McCain New Zealand, part of McCain Foods Limited, also runs a site in Timaru.
A company spokesperson told 1News the Hastings plant would close once this year’s processing and packing season ends, expected by January 31, 2027. McCain said a strategic review of the Hastings operation led to the decision, along with a change in how it will supply vegetables in Australia and New Zealand. RNZ reported the company also said it was “unable to identify a sustainable pathway under the current model.”
McCain has confirmed jobs will go but has not said how many. It employs about 1200 people across New Zealand and Australia. Affected staff are being consulted, the company said, and offered transition assistance, career support and wellbeing services.
Local reaction
Foley called the news “a tough pill to swallow for Central Hawke’s Bay, and the wider region.” He spoke of a crop farmer named Simon who sends peas and corn to McCain. “This impacts him, his family and the people that work for him,” Foley said.
The mayors told McCain their request was not meant to question its right to make business decisions. Foley said the study would be worth finishing “before key infrastructure or processing capability is lost.” It would cover infrastructure, markets, logistics, energy and water, workforce needs and commercial sustainability, and the two mayors said government backing would be needed to get it done quickly.
The closure came in the same week as Heinz Wattie’s confirmed it would shut its frozen packing lines in Hastings, along with sites in Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland. Scoop reported that about 300 jobs were affected, though some people might be redeployed.
Labour’s jobs and income spokesperson, Ginny Andersen, said McCain’s decision was “another blow” for workers and for Hawke’s Bay. She listed Wattie’s, Kinleith Mill, Winstone Pulp and Sealord among other recent closures and tied them to the government of Christopher Luxon.
Foley wondered aloud why a region he considers “a pretty good food producing region” was having trouble competing with imported food products.
Sources
- McCain Hastings Plant Closure Raises Job Loss Concerns
- Hawke's Bay mayors ask McCain to pause plant closure
- Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Questions Wattie's, Mccain Closures In 'Pretty Good Food Producing Region'
