Category: Rural

Source: Radio New Zealand

The hunt for the cheapest fruit and vegetables by both supermarkets and shoppers is putting pressure on locally produced crops in New Zealand.

Over the past few months, well-known brand Wattie’s New Zealand of Hawke’s Bay made a series of cuts to local production, firstly of [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/573533/wattie-s-says-slicing-peach-production-in-hawke-s-bay-not-related-to-owner-s-split

canned peaches], then tomatoes, beetroot and corn.

A spokesperson for the brand, owned by American food giant Kraft Heinz, said it annually reviewed its crop intake to respond to market demand, increased competition from imported goods and rising input costs.

David Hadfield, chairman of grower group Process Vegetables (representing processors McCains, Wattie’s and Talley’s) said food quality and safety regulations on New Zealand farms were generally higher than in other countries.

But he said shoppers, supermarket buyers and others like rest home meal providers were instead buying based on price.

“I think the downswing at the moment is just a blip, really.”

He said when demand increased, which he was hopeful it would, so too would the area of crops grown locally.

“But as far as local fresh vegetables go, it seems to be a changing trend that there’s less and less going into shopping carts, that is a worrying trend.”

Hadfield said imported produce may be cheaper, but local growers needed to be viable to keep growing and support food security, in the face of high input and labour costs.

“I suspect it’s quite a lot cheaper than New Zealand-grown,” he said.

“In supermarkets, they’re looking to make money, so if they can buy something cheaper somewhere else, they will.

“Not to say that it’s as good as what they can buy locally, but the consumer doesn’t know that, so they push it through their home brands.”

Supermarkets importing for own brands

Supermarkets Foodstuffs and Woolworths imported fruit and vegetables for some of their canned homebrands, including Pams and Woolworths essentials.

Generally, they imported peaches from South Africa or China, beetroot from China, corn from Thailand and tomatoes from Italy.

Hadfield said production standards varied country by country, the use of labour in harvest times and safety measures on farm.

“You can understand why they do it, but quality wise, the New Zealand produce is probably better.”

A spokesperson for Foodstuffs said it sourced locally “wherever possible”, but international supplies helped keep prices affordable and supplies consistently available for shoppers.

“Wherever possible, we source from New Zealand producers, but in some categories, particularly canned fruit and vegetables, global sourcing allows us to maintain quality and price stability year-round,” it said.

“When local supply can’t meet the volumes we need, or when sourcing internationally helps us keep prices affordable without compromising quality, we’ll explore overseas options.”

A Woolworths spokesperson said it sourced canned fruit and vegetables from both the Northern and Southern hemisphere, following the seasonal harvests to ensure year-round supply.

“New Zealand has a limited number of manufacturers canning vegetable and fruit products, but we do stock branded options.”

It said its canned tomatoes were sourced from Italy for authenticity.

“We only source products that meet our quality and responsible sourcing requirements and we have established, long-standing and trusted relationships with our current global suppliers.”

Both supermarkets held their own responsible sourcing policies and rules for suppliers, who must also comply with rules and regulations from their own country.

Foodstuffs prohibited child labour, forced labour or modern slavery from suppliers, and also audited them by external firm Sedex.

These included suppliers identified as international “high-risk” sites – of which, 163 out of 165 had completed a recent “social audit”.

One of Woolworths New Zealand’s responsible sourcing rules was that suppliers must uphold worker rights.

“We take a risk-based approach to managing risk in our trade supply chain,” a spokesperson said.

“All trade suppliers, including those of vendor branded goods, are expected to have established arrangements and processes consistent with our commitment to upholding human rights, outlined in the Responsible Sourcing Policy.

“Sites in scope of our Responsible Sourcing Standards are subject to risk assessment, and their risk profile drives their due diligence requirements. These requirements may include self assessment questionnaires and third party Social compliance audits.”

Read more:

‘Exceptionally high’ amounts of risky imports into NZ

Social development and Christian not-for-profit organisation, Tearfund New Zealand warned that companies would not scrutinise their food import supply chains for modern slavery, until it was made into law.

Head of advocacy Claire Gray said globally, horticultural products were considered “risky goods” largely due to labour concerns and the industry’s reliance on migrant workers, however New Zealand employment standards were higher than in other countries.

She said there were historical reports of forced labour in some food exports from China, and organised crime connected to tomatoes from Italy.

“A few red flags on that list, for sure,” she said.

“The level of risky goods being imported into New Zealand is exceptionally high, and it’s getting worse because as other countries have this modern slavery reporting legislation.

“And so then a country like New Zealand runs the risk of becoming a dumping ground for all of those risky goods that can’t get into other markets where there are tighter regulations.”

Gray said other markets like the United Kingdom and the European Union had anti-slavery or forced labour legislation in force, while New Zealand did not.

The previous [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/494653/government-begins-drafting-modern-slavery-supply-chain-register-law

Labour Government] committed to introducing modern slavery legislation, but she said it never got over the line, though she remained hopeful it would.

“I think New Zealanders are being put in a really difficult position because at the moment, the responsibility to make an ethical choice, if you will, is falling completely on the shoulders of consumers because we don’t have a law requiring businesses to take action in this space.”

Gray said polling research showed it was not price that was the biggest inhibitor for New Zealand shoppers buying more ethically, but a lack of available information on how to.

Choices ‘limited’ for NZ ‘eaters’

Shoppers of canned or frozen fruit and vege were encouraged to learn where the product came from.

Angela Clifford of not-for-profit organisation, Eat New Zealand, said the situation with Wattie’s pulling back local production was the result of a consolidated horticulture industry, driven by profit.

“[Kraft Heinz’] purpose is to maximise profits for their shareholders, their purpose is not to support New Zealand food growers or eaters,” she said.

“So I think it’s an indictment on where our food system is up to.

“Our choices are being really significantly limited more and more now.”

Clifford said a short, local food supply chain would better support local farmers and empower “eaters”.

“There are a whole lot of other reasons that you might choose local food, like the food is being produced in a way that the workers who are producing the food are being looked after, better environmental credentials,” she said.

“Even if you’re after the best value, then I’d really encourage people to understand about how much their local food costs.”

She said people should do their homework when shopping around.

“And don’t believe the hype that food in supermarkets from elsewhere is necessarily the cheapest food.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Dairy prices have fallen again in the fortnightly global auction overnight.

The average price at the Global Dairy Trade auction fell 3 percent to US$3678 a tonne, the seventh consecutive fall.

It follows the 2.4 percent drop in the previous auction.

The GDT (Global Dairy Trade) Price Index was at its lowest level since August 2024.

The price of wholemilk powder, which strongly influences payouts for local farmers, fell 1.9 percent to US$3452 (NZ$6099) a tonne.

Butter prices fell more than 7.6 percent, while cheddar prices fell 2.7 percent, and skim milk powder fell 0.6 percent.

NZX head of dairy insights Cristina Alvarado said the auction reflected the ongoing imbalance between supply and demand globally.

“Milk availability is expected to remain solid in the near term, adding further pressure to prices if demand does not strengthen,” she said.

“Seasonally, buying interest often softens as markets approach the end of the calendar year and move into the Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year and Ramadan periods, with many buyers already having secured forward contracts.”

Last week the NZX lowered its 2025-26 season forecast from $9.80 to $9.68 a kilogram of milk solids.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A global trout-fishing movement for those undergoing treatment or living with cancer is providing relief for Kiwi men.

The Reel Recovery charity has recently wrapped up a retreat on the Tongariro River in the central North Island town of Tūrangi.

Fishing guides provided free one-on-one tuition in the art of fly casting over a weekend of fishing and camaraderie.

Tongariro River Motel owner Ross Baker has hosted the programme for the past five years, making a difference by forging a connection with nature.

“Paddy Walsh from Taranaki acted as the guide and took one fellow out who’d never cast a line in the river in his life,” Baker said. “By the end of the day, he’d caught six trout and was over the moon.”

Each course brings together about 10-12 men, fishing guides and volunteers. With all the gear provided, there’s no need to worry about buying waders, a rod or fishing licence.

It can be a slow burner for some taking part, but the clear blue water, birdsong and tranquility usually reels them in.

“Over the years, we’ve had others who have struggled, but quite a few have come back later, because they’ve just enjoyed the experience so much,” Baker said.

“They’ve realised, despite their health problems, it’s something that completely takes their mind away from their situation and it’s relief in that sense.”

The programme had its origins in the United States in the early 2000s. A group of avid Colorado fly-fishers noticed how fishing helped a friend cope with the emotional toll of cancer.

Reel Recovery facilitator Paul Klenner said, while the fishing was wonderful, it was vital for the men to acknowledge what they were going through.

He said the course was a safe place for men to heal, talk and listen, and there were benefits for family waiting at home.

“The wives and the children of these guys, when they go home, they have a new man,” Klenner said. “A different person comes back and that’s so important, because it affects community and everybody.”

The Casting for Recovery charity also helps women whose lives have been affected by breast cancer.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A Taranaki high school is training the next generation of primary industry workers.

Nearly half of the 800 students at Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth take part in the school’s primary industries programme.

As part of the programme, students even run a native plant nursery and are contracted to produce 10,000 plants a year for South Taranaki District Council.

The school operates its own 20-hectare beef farm where students apply classroom learning directly on the land – from stock work and fencing to sustainability projects.

The programme, led by Aimee Watkins, spans agriculture, horticulture, forestry, fisheries and sports turf, giving students pathways beyond traditional dairy.

Watkins said many students go straight into farm jobs or some kind of related studies at university.

“Agriculture is really, really big here. It’s a really important part of the whole school and it’s massively supported.

“We have our practical stream, they’ve got stock in the yards and they’re fencing, they’re spraying, all those sorts of things and then there’s the academic stream, so the agriscience, agribusiness kids as well.

“So they come through and do different things – whether it’s investigations or environment, sustainability, and it’s all teed up through their standards that they do.

“It’s a pretty full package being able to have the farm as well, so the kids are talking about it in class and then also doing it.

“It’s pretty special. It’s a pretty unique environment really for students.”

Gerard Kalin, a former student of the college, has been the farm manager since July.

Recently the farm had Halter’s virtual fencing technology and smart cow collars installed, so Kalin had been walking students through that.

“Just last week we put the collars on 25 15-month-olds, so we’re a week into it,” he said.

“Again, we’ve integrated all the boys to put the collars on and do all the work around it, erecting the tower that was dug by the students.

“Moving forward, it’s going to be a great concept, I think. If we can integrate that knowledge or system, the boys will be a good product when they leave here.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The takeover bid for honey exporter Comvita has failed after not enough shareholders approved of the offer.

The company’s board had vigorously pushed shareholders to vote in favour of a $56 million deal with Florenz, owned by Canterbury businessman Mark Stewart.

However, the bid failed to meet key thresholds needed for the scheme to pass.

To be approved, the scheme needed to be approved by at least 75 percent of votes cast by shareholders in each interest class, and by more than 50 percent of the total votes.

In the first interest class, which included Florenz Associates, 100 percent of votes were in favour.

In the second interest class, excluding Florenz Associates, 54.29 percent voted in favour and 45.71 percent against.

In total, 54.34 percent voted in favour, and 45.66 against.

Comvita’s board said it was working with lenders and advisers to work out next steps, and “all available options” would be considered.

“The board has been working with its advisers and banking partners to evaluate a range of funding options as part of its contingency planning,” chair Bridget Coates said.

She said the board wanted to assess options to recapitalise the company.

“This work is progressing with urgency and discipline to secure a solution that stabilises the business, positions it to grow again, and reduces ongoing risk to shareholders.

“Our duty is to act in the best interests of all shareholders and to ensure the path forward is fair, transparent and well-considered.”

The bid had attracted criticism from some, including Comvita’s co-founder Alan Bougen, who pushed to veto the scheme.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The cries of ‘bid’ keep coming from livestock agents, as the prices called out by the auctioneer continue to rise.

They carefully watch the crowd of farmers and onlookers for the subtle signs of someone wanting to buy, no matter the cost.

‘Sold’ comes the cry and with a clap of a clipboard, the deal is done and it’s onto the next pen of sheep for sale.

“Good ewes, good lambs, but boy, that’s big money,” Eric Linklater tells Country Life.

He’s given tours of the Feilding saleyards each Friday for more than 20 years, but he hasn’t seen prices like this in a long time.

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Located in the heart of the Manawatū town, the saleyards have a long history in the district.

They’re also the largest in the country, servicing farmers from all over – Linklater’s seen stock from Hokitika, cattle from D’Urville Island and the former farmer’s even bought sheep from Tokoroa.

“They cover a huge distance.”

It all started back in 1880, he explains, as the tour starts near the entrance to the yards.

“A pen of cattle were sold behind the Denbigh Hotel. Well, the Denbigh Hotel’s still here and still selling cattle.

“They were the second set of saleyards in Feilding and, by 1920 or so, there were 2829 sets of saleyards in the district. Of course, the drover and his dogs were the important method of transport between the yards.

“Nowadays, there are the trucks carrying over 1000 lambs and 400 ewes, we suddenly find that the yards have concentrated more on this area and all the minor yards in the smaller areas have gone.”

The yards have 350 sheep pens, 140 cattle pens and 45 deer pens, and more than 50,000 cattle and 450,000 sheep are sold here each year, through teams from PGG Wrightson and Carrfields.

Prime stock is sold at weekly sales on Mondays and store stock on Fridays, the day Country Life pays a visit.

Linklater says prices at the moment are “very strong”, with the yards turning over more than $2 million dollars each week.

“[PGG Wrightson], for example, used to shout their auctioneers every time they hit the three million mark at one sale, but they don’t do it now, because they hit it too often.”

Linklater started the tours 20 years ago to help foster connections between urban and rural New Zealand. These days. his clients are increasingly international.

Open to the public, the saleyards also attract plenty of local onlookers.

The tour kicks off at the sheep pens just after 11am. By now, most farmers have been through to have a look at what’s on offer.

It’s a social event as much as a business one, Linklater says, as he deftly weaves his way through the crowds of chatting farmers and visitors, wandering dogs and even a few runaway sheep.

“At this time of year, of course, you’re starting to see the tail-end of the sheep, because farmers are flat out lambing and most of the lambs have already been sold.

With so few lambs about, prices are higher – a classic tale of supply and demand, he says. The top lambs at today’s sale will fetch $226 a head.

“Broadly speaking, they’re paying something like $10 a kilo on the hooks and they’d be sort of 4550 kilo lambs, so you’re talking about $250 on the hooks.”

It’s a similar story in the cattle market where prices average about $1700 a head with a maximum price of $3590.

It makes for a tough time being a buyer like local Feilding farmer Alan McLeod who came to the yards looking for rising two-year-old steers and heifers to fatten and finish on his property.

“It’s frightening buying,” he tells Country Life.

“You just got to face the market. Yeah, everybody’s going to have grass. We’re quite dry, Manawatū is dry, and we’re right on the verge of the spring boost.”

The sales have also brought out-of-towners like Vic Caskey from Taranaki, also in the market for two-year-old steers and “something to grow”.

“There’s not much going on at Taranaki at the moment, so [we] have to go further afield.

“[It’s] very expensive, but if you get the right ones, the margins are still there, as long as you work out what you can sell them for, so you know your margins are safe or safe-ish is all you can do.”

Learn more:

• You can learn more about the tours here.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The ebbs and flows of farming are expected to be exacerbated by future climate change effects, including more volatile weather and strained water resources, a new study has found.

Research consultancy firm Kōmanawa Solutions ran 295 million weather simulations with past weather data on a catchment in North Canterbury to understand how climate change will impact farmers’ bottom lines in the next decade.

It combined climate data, pasture growth models, farm economic models and stream health models to identify where farmers’ resilience was likely to be “overwhelmed” by climate and global volatility.

The purpose of the five-year project – supported by the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Fund – was to help farmers, regional councils, government and banks plan ahead for adaptation support.

The report found farm production and profitability were already affected by climate change, and the risk of financial instability was set to increase over time.

Water resource scientist and Kōmanawa founder Zeb Etheridge, who wrote the report, said water resources will be under greater pressure in a warming climate.

“As our climate continues to become more volatile, we expect the effects to become much more negative, with bad years becoming worse and more frequent,” Etheridge said.

The report found irrigated dairy farms were particularly at risk because water supplies were expected to become less reliable in areas with high usage pressures.

Etheridge said regulators should not look back to historical climate and river flow data to understand climate risks, but forward to understand the changing climate.

“That’s really what we’ve been trying to do with this work is give people an idea of how different things could be and give them the information to make more informed decisions.”

North Canterbury is home to a large irrigation scheme off the Waimakariri River, which is restricted during times of low river flows.

However, a new water storage facility proposal north of the Hurunui River by firm Amuri Irrigation is being considered by the Canterbury Regional Council.

Etheridge said North Canterbury farmers could reduce their stocking rates to better manage climate variability in the next decade.

“Our research says that in a lot of instances, dropping your stock numbers is probably going to make you a bit more resilient and improve your financial performance long term.

“Farmers might not make quite so much money in those good years, but they’ll be much more cushioned from the effects of those bad years.”

He said storing water will provide some resilience to farmers, but was not a silver bullet.

“Putting a water storage system on your farm like a pond to give you some more irrigation reliability, that can cushion you from the effects of climate change, but it can also increase your vulnerability to the broader volatility that we see in commodity prices, interest rates and so on. So you can increase your exposure on a financial side.

“It’s a big investment and I think people should be very wary about making those decisions from looking at past records of hydrology and climate and assuming that things are going to be the same, because they’re going to be different. The question is just how different.”

The research will be presented at the international Adaptation Futures conference in Ōtautahi/Christchurch from October 13-16.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s an early start for the musterers at Molesworth Station. The bulls are out with the cows for the mating season and the stockmen need to beat the heat. Country Life producer Sally Round spent a day with the musterers, the farmer and the cook, peeling back some of the mystique of New Zealand’s most famous farm.

Duncan, Connell, Josh and Liam are up before the birds.

Head torches on, they catch their horses before tucking into a pile of bacon and eggs in the kitchen at Tarndale.

The homestead there is one of Molesworth Station’s far-flung camps where the musterers can have a feed and bed down for the night while working on the furthest reaches of the 180,470-hectare property.

Molesworth, in the backcountry of Marlborough, has a mystique and mana which few other high country farms can match.

It brings out the best in people, according to farm manager Jim Ward.

“It’s land that we all have an empathy with,” he says.

“Since I’ve been here six sets of ashes of stockmen have been spread at Tarndale. It really gets inside your bones, I tell you.”

The engine of a dusty ex-army truck thrums in the dark as Duncan saddles up.

The horses, dogs and men have a lot of ground to cover so they use a Unimog for the hour-long drive to their start point on the western flank of the property.

Steep scree-laden ranges, stony river beds and a climate that can switch from achingly hot and dry to well below freezing in a matter of days mean the horses are purpose-bred on the property.

Duncan leads his horse, Roger, to the truck.

“He’s big, he’s a cruiser … nice, easy-going … yeh, he goes wherever I point him.”

A couple of dozen dogs, yelping with excitement hop in behind.

Duncan and his fellow musterers pile in the front.

A hint of pink in the eastern sky signals another hot dry day to come.

“When I came here, a fella said to me, there’re no other places in New Zealand you can saddle your horse every morning and let your dogs off to go to work,” Duncan says.

Take a look at the gallery of images below for more on the story.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Bespoke legislation and more ocean space is needed for the farming of kai moana, says the fisheries minister, so that aquaculture can one day rival New Zealand’s beef sector.

Shane Jones opened the industry’s annual conference in Nelson today, and spoke of the need to create a new global-scale protein-based industry.

“We have an inordinate opportunity for our tamariki and grandchildren to convert the oceanic space into a platform for global-scale protein-based fish farming.”

Regulatory reform and increased capital investment were also needed to help the sector reach the government’s target of $3 billion in exports in the next decade.

Aquaculture products are projected to bring in $650 million in export revenue for the year to June, up 13 percent on last year.

Jones announced the government’s five year Aquaculture Development Plan, in March, which set out the steps to grow the industry to generate $3b a year and double the number of jobs.

He said Ministry for Primary Industry staff were working on further plans for growth in the sector, and change needed to be driven by central government.

“I just don’t think it’s tolerable that anything to do with fisheries that we surrender the authority to local government or regional government.

“As a nationalist-orientated politician, I don’t see another way of cracking this nut unless we take back a lot of the authority.”

Jones said aquaculture was a “risk-riddled industry” that was constantly confronting problems, ones it could solve with government support and without increased regulation.

Science communicator and content creator James Sibley, who is often called a “fishfluencer” due to his social media work, was in New Zealand to speak at the conference and said there were incredible opportunities for aquaculture growth in New Zealand.

“I got into aquaculture because of the potential it has to feed the world, to feed a growing population with potentially healthier proteins than a lot of the population eats today, without doing irreversible damage at the scales that we see with current farming practices around the world, is immense but it has to be stewarded correctly.”

He said New Zealand was at the forefront of change with NZ King Salmon’s open ocean salmon farm in the Cook Strait.

“What they are trying here with the Blue Endeavour project, going offshore with these much larger pens much higher current waters, cleaner waters, highly oxygenated it has really strong potential.”

But Sibley said it came with its own challenges.

“It’s a much more hostile environment out there, they need bigger boats, more people. It has the potential to be great for the economy and coastal communities there that work those farms, but how they can maintain that, and if this trial works, then what? Do we put out another one? Do we try something new? Where do we go from there?”

It has been a tough year for the country’s biggest salmon producer who posted half year net loss of $20.8 million.

NZ King Salmon chief executive Carl Carrington said its fish went through the equivalent of having the flu or a bad cold last summer and went off their feed, forcing the company to reduce harvest volumes for an extended period, which affected earnings.

“It’s not unusual [for fish] to go off feed over the summer period but what happened this time, it was for an extended period of time and it didn’t recover until much later than what we’d usually expect and as a result, we lost a lot of biomass growth.”

Carrington said despite that, the company had $60m in the bank and a balance sheet that was getting stronger and they were “increasingly confident” about the future.

“We’re increasingly confident because we know what we’ve got in the toolkit to deal with these challenges over summer… and we think the growth pathway in front of us is now just starting to look really positive.”

General manager of aquaculture Grant Lovell said changes to its farming model in recent years meant unlike in previous summers, there was not mass mortality, the fish had just stopped growing.

It had done feed trials and other mitigation work to improve feed consumption and growth rates in the past few years.

The company was also making good progress on Blue Endeavour – which it hoped would prove up the model for open ocean aquaculture in order to see major change in export growth.

Lovell said the two pens for the open ocean farm were assembled and launched in Shakespeare Bay in April, and then were towed without nets or fish to Waihinau Bay in the outer Marlborough Sounds.

Juvenile salmon, smolt, were then transferred to adjacent holding pens and would be transferred out to the Blue Endeavour site in November.

The mooring grid was currently being installed, seven kilometres north of Cape Lambert. It was due to have been complete by now but contractors had encountered issues with weather and sea conditions, but were back on track.

Lovell said the new farm’s service vessel Whekenui, which was built in Vietnam, was due to arrive in Port Nelson next week.

The company had also purchased a $8m site at the Cloudy Bay Business Park in Blenheim, with plans to eventually move processing operations there to support the company’s growth, while maintaining the factory in Nelson to produce smoked fish and ready to eat products.

A quayside feed storage warehouse was also under construction in partnership with Port Marlborough, enabling feed to arrive directly into Picton, eliminating the need for it to be trucked over the hill from Nelson.

Lovell said “public enemy number one” was the lack of room for aquaculture to grow.

“In a sea of opportunity, in what feels like oceans of space, finding a home is actually quite hard. We obviously have Blue Endeavour now, but this alone will not grow the industry to the levels required.”

He said long term regulatory improvements were required to ensure growth and expansion in the industry.

“Although we are incredibly grateful for the marine extension bill, all freshwater farmers did not get that same benefit for freshwater salmon farms, all those consents will still expire in the coming years and we need to create the business confidence and certainty for investment.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Friday is World Egg Day – and New Zealand has about 1.6 million commercial hens with some now laying larger eggs.

Supermarkets are working towards only stocking eggs that have come from cage free chickens following ongoing hen welfare concerns.

Woolworths said by the end of the year all its cartons of eggs would be cage-free, and Foodstuffs, which owns New World and PaknSave, said it would do the same by 2027.

The founder of eg. Free-Range Eggs, Nathan Williams, said he wanted everyone to be able to afford ethical eggs and as more egg farms transition to free range – eggs would become cheaper.

He currently had 90,000 free range Shaver hens on his farm near Bulls and they laid more than 80,000 eggs a day. He was expanding his colony and said by Christmas the number of hens he farms would be more than 100,000.

“When a chicken first comes into lay around 16 to 20 weeks they lay smaller eggs – popping out what we call piwis which is a size five, and then as they grow their eggs get bigger, the eggs will be sixes and sevens. And then size eight and nine are our jumbo sizes.”

Williams said when the birds went outside and ate bugs and grass, he had more jumbo-sized eggs, which were often double-yolkers.

That meant shoppers may start noticing more Jumbo eggs, and Williams said about fifteen percent of his eggs were potentially-double yolkers.

Williams said contrary to public opinion – chickens had their own personalities and knew where they liked to eat, lay their eggs and sleep.

He said he had been pecked and chased by several of his inquisitive birds from time to time.

The Egg Producers Federation said the welfare of hens was paramount – as the happier the hen, the better the egg.

Its chairman John McKay said eggs were as popular as they had ever been. Over the last year, New Zealanders had eaten on average 229 eggs each, and that was up from last year when people consumed about 216 eggs.

“We are really pleased with that trajectory and as we all know eggs are a highly versatile and nutritious product.”

McKay said bird flu was something the poultry industry took very seriously and the one outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian influenza was well managed late last year.

About 160,000 chickens were culled on a free range egg farm in North Otago after becoming infected with the H7N6 strain they contracted from wild waterfowl.

“That farm is now back in production and eggs are being produced off it. The most important thing is making sure there is strong biosecurity on farms across the country and keeping the egg and poultry supply as resiliant as we can.”

He said there were no safety concerns about eating eggs.

McKay said he would be having a couple of poached eggs on toast for breakfast on Friday morning to celebrate World Egg Day.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand