Veggie growers in the Pukekohe region say their fields are going unpicked and going to waste - not because of the weather, but simply because there aren't enough seasonal workers.
They're only trickling into the country and it's costing growers millions of dollars every day.
Grower Allan Fong has walked away from a broccoli field because it is unusable.
"We've walked away from this crop because it's just gone past its best."
Fong said there just aren't enough workers to keep up with demand.
"The lack of labour has been our biggest problem."
It's a month since Fong last supplied broccoli to retailers.
"We are picking and choosing at the moment selecting which crops we are going to leave behind."
A four-hectare field growing for six months is now a six-figure loss. Fong himself has had to join his harvesting team of just six, a group that normally consists of at least 15.
He has asked for more recognised seasonal employer (RSE) workers to help him and his fellow growers out.
"Please relax some of the borders with some of the RSE workers coming in."
It's not just in the fields in the Pukekohe area where there's a problem but also in hothouses that supply a quarter of the country's tomatoes.
NZ Hothouse managing director Simon Watson said 15 percent of their tomatoes will go to waste, which is enough to feed the population of Wellington and Hamilton.
Watson told Newshub that letting the produce go to waste is extremely disheartening.
"Incredibly frustrated. We've put and our staff put their heart and soul into growing food for Kiwis and to see it being tipped out and wasted is just an absolute crying shame."
Watson said the cost of energy and fertiliser has rocketed while the labour supply has plummeted, so prices will rise.
"Seriously we need to free up the immigration pathways and Wellington who at the moment seem to be not listening, not understanding and clearly don't care anymore."
Local MP Andrew Bayly said that it potentially spells doom for Pukekohe.
"Many of these families have been in operation for decades, hundreds of up to a hundred years and now they're facing one of their worst periods where they're looking at what's going on and saying can I survive this and that's a real shame."
Vegetable growers say people need to brace for prices to rise further.
In a statement Immigration Minister Michael Wood explained the cap on seasonal workers has grown from 5000 in 2007 to 16,000 this year and is now the highest it's ever been and the whole system's under review.
