Earlier this month, Niwa said a third La Nina weather pattern would bring continued weather extremes next year. Growers and economists said this would mean intermittent shortages of fresh produce as well as volatility in the price that consumers would pay. This meant one bad week of weather could throw out a planting schedule for weeks and lead to supply issues at supermarkets. But Leaderbrand chief executive Richard Burke said that although the company had recently invested in indoor growing facilities, it was not a silver bullet that would assure an uninterrupted supply of fresh produce. But changing from outdoors to indoor growing was not necessarily the right financial move for growers because the cost of building indoor growing facilities was more than $1 million per hectare, Burke said.

Source: Stuff September 13, 2022 14:28 UTC