Commercial garlic grower accused of spreading misinformation, bullying and racially attacking smaller domestic producers

A commercial Hawke's Bay garlic grower has been accused of a social media smear campaign, misinformation and bullying and racially attacking smaller domestic producers to discredit them online.

The squabble has predominantly played out on the garlic gurus NZ Facebook page, centred around debate over claims of an allium white rot (AWR) outbreak and which landowners are responsible for the fungal disease.

Te Mata Garlic's Chris Morrison is facing allegations of scaremongering by falsely claiming to have been tasked by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and other industry bodies to compile data on growers as part of an "industry investigation".

MPI has denied investigating an AWR outbreak.

Morrison also left a comment on an international 150,000-member garlic Facebook page claiming that here had been a "massive white rot outbreak in the South Island".

Queenstown domestic garlic grower Megan Palmer said Morrison accused Otago growers of spreading AWR, after other members raised concerns about diseased crops on the growing tips page.

She said the online debate escalated to personal attacks after Morrison's claims were challenged.

"Chris began verbally abusing a grower and then he started sending really abusive messages to me, basically saying I didn't know what on earth I was talking about," she said.

"Essentially he's continued up until recently, jumping on people's posts, but he's used that to cynically promote his business as white rot-free."

RNZ has seen screenshots of Morrison's social media comments, in which he called Palmer a "Chinese troll" who was planting in disease-infected areas he dubbed "Little Wuhan".

Palmer said she reported Morrison on Facebook for "hate speech".

"I don't think it's the rational behaviour from somebody, particularly a business person. That to me is out of order," she said.

Allium white rot is a devastating garlic and onion disease that can result in significant yield losses during epidemic seasons.

RNZ understands one boutique grower stopped selling their garlic earlier this year, partially because of stress, after they were attacked by Morrison.

South Otago domestic grower Rachel Cullen grew about 1200 cloves of different varieties last year, but found one to two beds were diseased during her January harvest.

She suspected white rot had infected one-to-two pots but said she destroyed all the "bad stuff".

Cullen said she sought advice on Facebook and responded to Chris Morrison's call for details about cases of white rot by sharing her location and where she sourced the seeds.

"He immediately jumped on that and said 'yikes white rot'," she said.

"I told him I wasn't sure but then he immediately got hostile towards us."

One of Morrison's comments read: "Are you denying you have white rot and replanted garlic anyway? We call this FAFO gardening".

FAFO is a slang term that is short for "F*** around and find out".

Cullen said Morrison's "aggressive" behaviour appeared to be commercially motivated.

"He's a bully. I think he was using that [social media page] as a method of advertising and pushing his own agenda. He was looking for posts to jump on and to use as a marketing thing to scare people into buying stock off him," she said.

Another domestic grower, who did not want to be named, claimed they bought garlic seeds from Morrison that rotted in 2022.

Te Mata Garlic's website states its planting zone is "white rot-free".

Chris Morrison would not agree to an interview but told RNZ via text message that he stood by his remarks.

"All info we have has been offered freely by growers," he said.

"We have strongly suggested both these growers...stop growing in their infected areas. If they call that bullying so be it. This is a serious matter and also puts our massive industry at risk."

Morrison, who had been a moderator on the 11,000 member garlic gurus NZ Facebook group, was removed by a fellow administrator in June for "increasingly aggressive behaviour".

Megan Palmer was also removed as a moderator.

She complained to the Commerce Commission about Chris Morrison's behaviour but it opted not to investigate.

Vegetables NZ chairman and garlic grower John Murphy said there was no big AWR outbreak in New Zealand.

"There's some white rot in various provinces, as there is all over the world. It is quite manageable. You couldn't say Hawke's Bay is white rot-free with any certainty," he said.

Murphy said Morrison had caused unnecessary alarm by collecting people's information and misrepresenting who they were working for.

"I don't think there's any reason for the vitriol that we've heard about. Commercial growers compete with each other in the market and sometimes that can become quite tense. There's no need to get overly personal about these things," he said.

An MPI spokesperson said it had not sought growers' details for a supposed AWR outbreak.

"MPI was made aware of some social media commentary earlier this year. We have made some enquiries," they said.

MPI said the disease was established and widespread in New Zealand and self-managed by growers and was not typically monitored by the agency.