> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 60 Cents a Lettuce: The Back of the Pack So Far - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/fenton-hazelwood-back-of-the-pack/ - Published: 2026-10-30T17:31:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T17:30:59.000Z - Description: A lettuce offered at 60 cents in the paddock and sold for $2 on the shelf. Five pieces into his eight-part election series, Fenton Hazelwood keeps finding the same gap: the supermarket's numbers are public, and the grower's aren't. - Author: Luke Nicholas - Tags: supermarkets, Vegetables, food labelling, growers, Election 2026 On a Sunday in May, Fenton Hazelwood went to buy frozen sweetcorn and ended up [photographing the backs of the bags](https://fentonh.substack.com/p/what-you-dont-see). At Pak'nSave Royal Oak, the Talley's corn named a Marlborough farm. The McCain corn beside it was packed in New Zealand using corn grown in China. He tried New World Mt Roskill and Woolworths Grey Lynn that afternoon and couldn't find New Zealand-grown sweetcorn in either. That afternoon is where [The Back of the Pack](https://fentonh.substack.com/p/what-you-dont-see) begins. It's an eight-part series on his Substack, [Thank a Farmer](https://fentonh.substack.com/), running in the weeks before the [election on 7 November](https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/01/21/game-on-as-pm-luxon-reveals-2026-election-date/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), and five pieces are out. You may remember Fenton from earlier this month. His piece on gene technology and fresh produce exports was the starting point for our post [Not GM, Unless You Buy Organic](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/not-gm-unless-you-buy-organic/). The series runs on one idea. The front of a pack is the marketing, and the back is where you find out what you're buying. Fenton holds the supermarket claims we've been hearing all campaign up to that test, and keeps turning them over to find nothing printed on the back. ## 1\. What You Don't See (16 October) Foodstuffs says it makes about three cents in the dollar, and that more than 70% of Pams sales are made in or sourced from New Zealand. Fenton doesn't say either claim is false. His interest is in what sits behind them, unpublished: what Foodstuffs' 500-odd owner-operated stores earn, how much of a vegetable dollar reaches the grower, and whether growers are making a living at all. He sets himself a test early on. If the full numbers showed supermarket profits weren't excessive, he says, he'd accept that and say so. [Read What You Don't See](https://fentonh.substack.com/p/what-you-dont-see) ## 2\. Which 3%? (20 October) Next he pulls the three cents apart, and it turns out to be at least three numbers. Foodstuffs South Island's annual report said under four cents. Chris Quin told Newstalk ZB 3.6 cents. A review Foodstuffs commissioned this month said 2.3%, and that one covers the whole sector, Woolworths included. The detail that stays with you is an accounting change. In its 2024 accounts, Foodstuffs North Island changed how it records goods delivered straight to stores, and its 2023 revenue was restated from $4.30 billion to $8.46 billion. Gross profit didn't move. Every margin calculated on revenue halved, and nothing about the business had changed. That's why Fenton would rather look at return on capital. On that measure, the Commerce Commission found returns of around 13.1%, against the 5.5% it would expect in a competitive market. [Read Which 3%?](https://fentonh.substack.com/p/which-3) ## 3\. 68 Cents (22 October) The third piece starts in a paddock. A grower rang Fenton while hoeing a crop of iceberg lettuce back into the ground, because the offer was 60 cents a head and it wasn't worth cutting. That same week iceberg was on special for 99 cents, and a few days later Fenton found it at $2 a head in two supermarkets. He's careful not to call the gap profit, because freight, packing, the store and waste all come out of it. The trouble is that nobody outside the supermarket can see how it splits, and neither can the grower. Foodstuffs says 68 cents of every shelf dollar goes to the product. That sounds generous until you remember it has to cover the grower, the packer, the processor, the wholesaler and the truck. Then there's the question Fenton says nobody has answered. The Commerce Commission says suppliers pay the two big chains about $6 billion a year in rebates, promotions and other payments. Is the 68 cents counted before that money goes back, or after? [Read 68 Cents](https://fentonh.substack.com/p/68-cents) ## 4\. Made Here Isn't Grown Here (26 October) Back to the freezer. Our origin labelling rules only apply to single foods, and a bag of mixed peas and corn [isn't covered](https://insidegovernment.co.nz/commerce-commission-serves-up-new-food-rules/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). So Fenton bought four bags of mixed vegetables to see what they'd tell him anyway. The Pams bag said it was packed in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients. The Woolworths bag, at the same $3.69, said 100% New Zealand grown on the front. He admits he'd expected it the other way round. McCain manages both at once: its corn is grown in China, while its mixed bag, corn included, says grown in New Zealand. He also takes apart the Pams 70%. "Made in or sourced from" lets a bag packed here from imported vegetables count. And when Foodstuffs listed pasta as something that can't be produced here, Fenton pointed to Monty and Sons in Martinborough, which makes it from Wairarapa-grown durum wheat. Its radiatori was [Supreme Champion at this year's Outstanding Food Producer Awards](https://dish.co.nz/competitions/announcing-the-champions-2026-outstanding-food-producer-awards?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). [Read Made Here Isn't Grown Here](https://fentonh.substack.com/p/made-here-isnt-grown-here) ## 5\. Fewer Growers, Same Paddocks (29 October) The latest piece opens with spring onions. Growers used to be paid for the onions and, on a separate line, for bunching them. The bunching line disappeared. The bunching didn't. Somebody still tied every bunch, and the work simply stopped being counted. It's a tidy summary of the whole series. [Horticulture New Zealand](https://www.hortnz.co.nz/news-events-and-media/media-releases/hortnz-marks-20-years-supporting-one-of-new-zealands-fastest-growing-sectors?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) says grower numbers have fallen from more than 7,000 in 2005 to around 4,300, even as the area under horticulture has grown. What nobody can see is whether the ones left are making money. The industry's Fresh Facts report publishes what a kiwifruit orchard returned per hectare, $136,342 in 2024/25\. For onions, Fenton says, the same line has read "Not reported by industry" for three seasons. [Read Fewer Growers, Same Paddocks](https://fentonh.substack.com/p/fewer-growers-same-paddocks) ## What he's getting at Read together, the five pieces keep landing in the same place. A supermarket's margin is public, and argued over on the radio. A grower's isn't published at all. Fenton isn't asking for price controls or a break-up, and he's said that what comes after the election will be numbers. Supermarkets already ask growers for volumes, quality and harvest dates weeks ahead. He wants something back: one figure, every year, on what it costs to grow our food and whether the price covers it. He's upfront about where he stands. He works for WestAg, which he describes as a grower-owned reseller supplying growers, and he ends every piece by asking readers to weigh what he writes with that in mind. It isn't a series about organic food. But an organic carrot needs the same thing his series keeps circling, a grower who can afford to plant again next year. Three pieces are still to come, and he's heading back to the same freezer aisles in November. [Subscribe to Thank a Farmer](https://fentonh.substack.com/) to get them as they land. In the meantime, turn a bag over. ## Before you go If this was useful, [sign up free](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/signup) to get new posts by email. And if you'd like to help keep the site going, you can [leave a one-off tip](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/support).