A popular Auckland farmers market founder and business owner is encouraging Kiwis to buy local as boutique growers try to survive the Covid-19 downturn.
Auckland couple Helen and Richard Dorresteyn founded the Clevedon Farmers Market 15 years ago. Its 70 vendors would usually attract hundreds of people each Sunday.
But its popularity had its downsides come Alert Level 2.
“It will be difficult to open it in all its glory because 100 people’s possibly not enough,” Ms Dorresteyn told TVNZ1’s Breakfast this morning.
But she said she's considering reopening the Clevedon Farmers Market when Alert Level 2 kicks in.
Ms Dorresteyn, alongside her husband, also run an award-winning buffalo dairy business Clevedon Buffalo Company. They were the first in the country to farm the animals, and they’ve now had to adapt both their business and the market to the new reality of the pandemic by moving online.
“Having an online market has helped. That brought sharply into focus for us the need for the online market because we’re producers,” she said.
“If you can’t get your product out to your customers, what do you do? So, that is why we turned around so quickly and put an offering up online.
“For us and our friends who also grow or farm, we saw very clearly how [the pandemic] affected them. They had beautiful fruit and produce just sitting there doing nothing.”
She said going online was a natural progression as people were wanting the food.
But Ms Dorresteyn said boutique growers had to keep their expectations in check as people wouldn’t always be able to buy boutique products.
“But I think if there is a special occasion, do buy local,” she said.
“You’re supporting a New Zealand company, New Zealand jobs.”
Ms Dorresteyn said we shouldn’t be tempted by overseas offerings, especially at this time and especially considering the quality of produce already in the country.
“What worries me, as well as losing companies and jobs, is losing knowledge… You don’t just Google ‘how do I make a perfect cheese?’ You learn it and pass that on.
“If you lose people that know how to grow a good tomato… you lose a lot.”
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