Horticulture New Zealand has teamed up with WorkSafe New Zealand to create a health and safety toolkit specifically designed for horticulture businesses.

"Managing health and safety in the workplace is a critical issue for horticulture businesses," Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman says. "Keeping up with what is required is something we can help growers with.

"Working with WorKSafe, we have been able to customise a toolkit, called Keep Safe, Keep Growing, which includes both a written booklet and an easy-to-work-through online guide to help growers identify and manage health and safety risks.

"The guideline is targeted at those who are responsible for the management of health and safety in a horticulture business. It covers the steps that growers should take to build a health and safety system.

"Features include a guide for visitors to a property, tools and training resources for workers and contractors, and the ability to create risk assessments for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) audits that are part of many horticulture businesses."

Horticulture New Zealand represents 5,500 commercial fruit and vegetable growers who employ 60,000 people. A copy of the Keep Safe, Keep Growing guide will be posted to all growers over the coming days. Additional copies will be available from Horticulture New Zealand on request. The online guide can be found here.