GROWING DISCIPLINE THROUGH TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN A NEW-ZEALAND HORTICULTURE REGION

Horticultural activity in New Zealand is changing through an intensifi ed search for higher value, customer-oriented production. This paper e xamines the transformative influences of quality management initiative s in the horticultural complex of Hawke's Bay, a major producing regio n for apples, wine grapes, tomatoes, asparagus and squash. The paper i dentifies specific initiatives in each sector, explores the nature of the context in which growers operate and examines strategies growers h ave followed in response to structural pressures and an emerging under standing of quality management in the region. The paper concludes that the quality management initiatives represent a new governance dimensi on in the horticultural scene which has the potential to completely re fashion the organisation of sectoral production systems. (C) 1997 Else vier Science Ltd.