Apparently we haven’t been eating our fresh vegetables.

According to Horticulture New Zealand, quick and easy take-aways and lazy choices have seen fresh fruit and vege demand decline heavily during the festivities of the Rugby World Cup.

And a good spring and excellent growing conditions have resulted in an abundance of produce.

In some cases, unable to find a market, many growers have resorted to leaving mounds of perfectly good vegetables to rot in their fields.

Chief Executive Officer of Horticulture New Zealand Peter Silcock says the situation is devastating for growers

“Obviously to plough a crop in and not harvest it at all means things are really bad.

"If the demand isn’t there then there is just no point taking that first step to harvest the product. So people will just plough it back in and start again. It’s obviously a really disappointing thing for growers to have to do.”

Mr Silcock says that although the situation is stressful, with summer coming along he’s positive that demand will turn around.

He also points out that the bonus for shoppers is that prices for fresh vegetables are very reasonable at the moment.

“When we’ve got good supplies and not much demand obviously it has an impact on prices and we are seeing some very low prices.

"At the moment there is some very good value for consumers. If consumers can realise the good value that is there and get that demand going then that would be great.

"Maybe it’s just time for them to get into starting to eat that healthy food again after maybe relying on the take-aways and things like, that during the Rugby World Cup”