The old adage that greens are good for you isn’t necessarily ringing true for fruit and veggie growers around the country.

The Green Party’s proposal to tax water taken by irrigators will put large numbers of fruit and vegetable growers out of business, claims Horticulture New Zealand.

The proposed policy, announced by Green Party co-leader Dr Russel Norman, plans to charge irrigated users 10c for every 1,000 litres used.

The Greens claim this would raise between $370 and $570 million a year, which would then be spent on river and lake clean-up and protection.

HortNZ chief executive Peter Silcock says water is the lifeblood of the horticulture industry, which employs 50,000 people and is worth $5.5 billion to the economy.

Peter Silcock says 10cents may not sound a lot, but for most growers it will run into tens of thousands of dollars a year, and will be a major setback for the industry goal of reaching sales of $10 billion, by 2020.