Pukekohe vegetable grower Harry Das says his losses could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Vegetable crops will go to waste due to grocers and restaurants closing unless alternative buyers can be found, market gardeners say.

Two Pukekohe market gardners said crops like broccoli and lettuce, which needed to be picked daily would rot in the ground.

"Lettuce is in the paddock that we don't know what to do with... There are thousand and thousands of dollars worth of produce going to waste," market gardner Harry Das said.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF Fields of lettuce and broccoli that need to be picked daily as they become ready, are rotting in the field growers say.

Das said that up until Friday he was sending two truckloads of mixed vegetables to customers but that had almost entirely dried up because grocers were closed.

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Das said a weekly load of processed lettuce for McDonalds had also stopped.

On Tuesday he had just one order for 160 crates of cabbage for export.

"No pumpkin, no potatoes, no lettuce, no spinach. Normally we would sell two truck loads combined of everything, every day," he said.

Another grower, Bharat Jivan said he had also lost a processing contract for a company that supplied burger chains, a blow because the crops were already in the ground.

But the biggest impact had been from restaurants closing, he said.

Jivan said he hoped he could find new customers for vegetables.

Green crops would go yellow and start to rot, unlike potatos and onions which could be stored for up to four weeks, he said

Jivan said had not cut any lettuce since the lockdown began last Wednesday, but he had cut two pallets of broccoli on Monday.

He said would normally cut between 12 and 20 pallets if demand was high, which it had been directly before the lockdown.

RNZ The supermarket panic-buying seems to have died down, and stores are reporting a return to some sense of calm after the lockdown began.

The dilemma growers faced was that they need to continue planting because when the lockdown was lifted there would have to be produce to harvest, Jivan said.

Das said that even then it would take some weeks for things to get back to normal. People would still be scared to venture out and they would also not have much money.

He was worried that the hospitality businesses he relied on that may never reopen.

On Monday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said grocers would not be reopened during the lockdown to limit contact between people.

Horticulture New Zealand spokesman Andrew Bristol said said discussions were continuing with the Government.

"We're really happy that the independents are allowed to fulfil orders placed online but we are still discussing if independent fruit and veg retailers can reopen because they supply between 20 and 30 per cent of the country's supply," he said.

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