While it's been a disrupted growing season for some crops, vegetable processor Heinz Watties is expecting record harvests of peas and broad beans in Canterbury this year.
This year's crop of broad beans is expected to be about 65% larger than the usual 600 tonnes.
The pea harvest started on Wednesday, and over the season Heinz Watties is expecting to harvest 30,000 tonnes of peas, the product of record plantings in July and August.
Agriculture manager Mark Daniels says the Hornby factory in Christchurch will be processing frozen, canned and dehydrated peas around the clock for the next three months, at the rate of more than 400 tonnes a day.
Mark Daniels says the increased plantings of peas and broad beans are to meet growing demand, especially in export markets, which take most of the production.
