People are being urged to buy local tinned fruit, as imports from overseas flood the market

New Zealand's peach industry took a significant hit last year, when Heinz Wattie's told multiple peach growers it would no longer need their fruit.

It's because many consumers are choosing imported fruit instead, after China dumped hundreds of thousands of canned peaches into the market at a much lower cost.

Hawkes Bay's Yummy Fruit Company general manager Paul Paynter says there's a difference in quality.

He says if people buy a can of Watties and a can of the Chinese brand, the taste is night and day.