Category: Rural

Source: Radio New Zealand

Government’s plans to change KiwiSaver regulations for farmers and others, opens the door for retirement funds to be used to invest in a business or a rental property.

The proposed changes would alter KiwiSaver to allow first-time farm buyers to buy a farm business with a home, while workers in employer-provided housing would be able to withdraw funds to buy a first home — but not as their primary residence.

Fund managers said the proposed change could equally apply to a shopkeeper buying a business with living accommodation upstairs, or a New Zealand miner living in worker-accommodation in Western Australia and wanting to use their KiwiSaver to buy a house in New Zealand.

Kōura Wealth managing director Rupert Carlyon said the government proposal aligns with the National Party’s efforts to make KiwiSaver withdrawals available to New Zealanders who want to invest or own a business.

“It’s been pretty well flagged by National, I think for quite a long time that they want to do this,” he said, adding the proposal was raised at least three times over the past four or five years.

“National (has) been trying pretty hard to figure out ways to allow people to withdraw KiwiSaver for business purposes.”

Simplicity managing director Sam Stubbs said the KiwiSaver was designed to be a long-term retirement savings plan, rather than a savings plan to buy a business or a rental property.

He said letting farmers buy a farming business with a house on it is much the same as many other types of businesses, such as dairy owners who live upstairs from their shop.

“So what you’re doing here is you’re making an exception for farmers, and it’s understandable why they’re doing that, but it is also challenging, because maybe other people should benefit from the same set of rules,” Stubbs said.

“To make an exception just for farm workers is, I think, a little bit unfair to the other New Zealanders who may be in those circumstances.”

In any case, Carlyon said the changes would make little difference.

“I very much doubt there will be very many farmers that end up using KiwISaver to buy their farms that are not already doing so,” he said, adding that farmers could already buy a farm using their personal name, rather than a business name.

“I also support the idea that people provided with housing for their work will be able to buy a house using their KiwiSaver,” he said.

“My only concern would be – is this a great use of Parliament’s time. I suspect we are talking about hundreds of additional withdrawals a year here — a lot of effort for a pretty small change.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Thousands of shipping containers filled with New Zealand exports bound for international markets are caught up in the Midd le East conflict.

New Zealand has a free-trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council which includes countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman.

New Zealand exported $3.1 billion worth of product there in the year to June last year – mostly dairy, red meat and horticulture products.

Shipping firm Kotahi, which was set up by Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms, said it’s working with its carrier partners and customers to identify contingency plans and alternative routes for cargo destined for the Middle East or scheduled to transit through the region.

Chief executive Emma Parsons said all shipping lines have suspended services through the Strait of Hormuz due to the Middle East conflict, Kotahi currently has 4000 TEU (equivalent 20-foot containers) of cargo in transit on this trade lane.

“Kotahi is closely monitoring developments in the Middle East and is well positioned to respond quickly to support New Zealand exporters in this evolving situation.”

The Meat Industry Association said nearly all our exports to the Gulf Co-operation Council, which were worth $298 million last year, go through Hormuz.

“While there are other ports outside the Gulf for some of the GCC countries, such as Jeddah for Saudi Arabia and Soha for Oman, these are likely to face significant congestion and delays if the ports inside the Gulf can’t be accessed,” a spokesperson said.

“If Hormuz is closed, congestion and delays will primarily impact chilled exports to the Middle East, which were worth $166 million last year.”

The association said disruption in the straight won’t affect exports to the United Kingdom and Europe as New Zealand red-meat products are shipped via the Red Sea or around Africa.

Dairy giant Fonterra said it’s monitoring the situation closely, “It’s too early to say what the impact will be.”

“The Middle East is an important and complex region and we are well versed at trading through geopolitical and trade volatility along with supply chain disruptions.

“However, the situation remains highly unpredictable, with a variety of scenarios that could play out over time.”

Export New Zealand executive director Joshua Tan said it’s important exporters monitor developments.

“I think at this stage there are probably more questions than answers, given that it’s all happened over the last 48 hours.

“I think overall, there are probably three key issues for global supply chains at this point. That’s the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and how that affects shipping lanes, but then also the global oil supply, the closure of major airports in the region, and then the anticipated resumption of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.”

Tan said exporters have product on the water heading towards affected ports.

“Exporters need to work with their logistics providers early on about what to do. It’s about keeping your customers and your clients informed about what potential delays there might be and what you’re doing to mitigate those.”

Tan understands the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is organising a briefing for exporters.

“Companies learnt some really valuable lessons about resilience during Covid – certainly the need to increase communications up and down the supply chain. improving relationships with customers and also those logistics providers, but then also the need to consider a just-in-case inventory model in markets and holding higher stock levels overseas.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

It is time for the food sector to have difficult conversations about its emissions, particularly beef and dairy. That was the message from a top UK scientist at the Riddet Institute’s Agrifood Summit.

Sir Charles Godfray from Oxford University is a population biologist and director of its Future of Food programme.

Addressing food security and sustainability at the Wellington gathering this week, he said while there had been concerns about how to feed a burgeoning population – expected to hit over 10 billion people by the 2080s – the bigger issue was how to feed them while ensuring adequate nutrition.

“We now know that if you bring people out of poverty, if you provide them with education, especially for girls, then human population fertility goes down. So we can now intellectually think about a time when humanity’s demands on the planet to produce food will plateau and even go down.”

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In particular, there were challenges about feeding an ageing population, Sir Charles said.

“Old people demand different, a different type of food than the younger people.”

Addressing protein deficits and improving diets, particularly in low-income countries, was another challenge facing the food sector with the “fetishisation of protein” in recent years.

Sir Charles said high- and middle-income countries like New Zealand had to avoid the “hypocrisy” of lecturing lower-income countries on how to manage this in a warming climate.

He thought it likely the world would begin to see more and more extreme events associated with climate, so that the effects of the food system on the climate and the climate on the food system would become “undeniable”.

“We need to have proper conversations about livelihoods and just transitions and how sectors can transform.

“When we talk about the challenges of milk and dairy in high-income countries, we must be very careful not to transpose those worries onto low-income countries, especially low-income countries where animal-based agriculture are so important.”

Sir Charles said it was possible ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, may become an important tool in addressing these challenges.

“There will be challenges in the global food system that may require foods that would be categorised as ultra-processed foods. If you think that UPFs are just the devil and can never be improved, then that is to me worrying because we will need these foods to address, for example, environmental things.”

While many contained “a lot of fat, a lot of sugar, a lot of salt” and were designed to be eaten very quickly, thus making them “energy dense” and increasing the risk of overconsumption, he said more work was needed to better understand their possible benefits as well as the harm they can cause.

Food producers had also yet to grapple with the consequences of the rise of GLP-1s – medication which mirrored our natural hormone GLP-1 to suppress appetites and regulate blood sugar levels.

Sir Charles said figures suggested about 15 percent of people in the US were using GLP-1s, and food companies like Nestlé were starting to develop products tailored to these needs.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

For the first time in 40 years, no fish will be weighed in at Mid Canterbury’s Rakaia Fishing Competition today, due to woefully low numbers of salmon in the river.

The small farming township was once world famous for its abundant chinook salmon and other fish populations in the Rakaia River, even boasting a mighty 12-metre high salmon statue on state highway 1.

But numbers of sea-run salmon/hāmana, trout/tarauta and other aquatic life like smelt/paraki in the river have drastically declined in recent years.

This year, the 400 people entered in the iconic competition will instead vie for a lucky dip draw of $60,000 worth of prizes, including a motorbike – usually reserved for the heaviest fish.

Event organiser, Rakaia River Fishing Promotions’ president, Chris Agnew said it was a very difficult decision to run the event without fishing.

But he hoped it would encourage fish to come back and spawn in the river.

“It was a tough call to make because you know, like that’s what the thing is about, is trying to catch the biggest fish,” he said.

“It was the most sensible thing we could come up with that gave the competitors a chance to come and enjoy the competition or enjoy the camaraderie … But also to protect what fish are left coming back into the river, and to give them half a chance at spawning up the top.”

Agnew said low freshwater fish numbers were not isolated just to Rakaia.

“We’re not the only rivers, like every river in the South Island is suffering the same problem with no numbers.”

The Rakaia Fishing Competition started in the early 1980s and runs to Sunday. It bills itself as “the most successful fresh water fishing competition”. The contest started in 1983 as a way to promote local businesses but has evolved to promote ways to defend the river and highlight the fishery’s demise.

Earlier this month, Greenpeace activists vandalised Rakaia’s iconic salmon statue, turning it into a dead fish saying, “Fonterra killed my family” and blaming “dirty dairying”.

A spokesman said the protest was to highlight the damage to the Rakaia and pointed to the fishing competition not involving any fish.

Anglers’ harvest limited, more restrictions considered

Anglers have been restricted to catching just one salmon with current bag limits, and in January, Fish and Game consulted them on possible further restrictions on the fishery.

North Canterbury Fish and Game Council’s operations manager, Lyndon Slater said anglers were concerned, and the issue was not unique to Canterbury, where salmon numbers were historically low.

“The environmental pressures that we’re seeing are reflected right around right around the country. Particularly our East Coast rivers, we have seen the same decline across the board.”

Slater said environmental factors like warming oceans and reduced river flows from water takes were the largest drivers behind the decline.

He said that water takes affected river flows and the conditions of the habitats that supported spawning.

“We’ve seen, obviously with climate change, we’ve seen the impact of those consented takes decrease the quantity and quality of the water in the river.

“The impact of reduction in flows increases the temperature in the river and does result in increased mortality of fish.

“So while we recognise the need for irrigation generally, we would always like to see more water in rivers and the efficient use of water through that regulatory process.”

He said the Council wanted to see increased minimum flows in future.

“The issue isn’t necessarily with the [consenting] process itself, it’s around the amount that they allocated for its use and then how that water is used for the activity.”

Fish and Game’s latest sea-run salmon survey for the 2024/25 season said estimated harvest decreased on all four major sea-run salmon fisheries at the Rakaia, Rangitata, Waimakariri and Waitaki Rivers compared to the season prior.

“This is the third consecutive year we have observed a decline in the number of salmon harvested. On each of the four major salmon fishing rivers, the estimated harvest was less than half the previous season estimate,” it read.

Too much river water’s being taken – fishers

New Zealand Salmon Anglers’ Association president, Paul Hodgson said anglers saw the decline of the Rakaia River on a daily basis, describing the state of the fishery “like a death”.

“The only thing I can say for absolute dead certain is that the salmon in the rivers are almost gone. The trout in the lowland rivers are almost gone from where they used to be. The Stokell’s smelt are gone. All of these are indicators that something is not right.

“We’re living the funeral. We’ve been living it for the past five or ten years and nobody’s done anything about it to have any significant impact on it.”

Hogson said water extraction consents allowed enormous volumes of water to be taken from the Rakaia and other rivers, which affected river flow, the ecosystems and worsened sediment build-up.

“What’s truly amazing is people think that you can take 50 percent of the water out of the river and expect there to be no impact.”

He said the Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) considered river health as proportional to river flow, but all adverse effects from water takes were not being properly tested.

“Well the health of the river doesn’t feature in the consent. And yet in every clause of a water abstraction consent, there’s a review course that goes along the lines of, ‘this consent may be reviewed if adverse effects are found.’

“But ECan doesn’t monitor for adverse effects, therefore, there is no evidence of decline. Therefore, there is no problem.”

He acknowledged that extraction consents legally allowed large water takes, and consented dairy farmers were authorised to do so, despite river degradation.

“The time has come where we need to start listening to what the science is telling us, and we need to take actions to manage the rivers adequately.”

Consenting conundrum

There were 63 water extraction consents between the Rakaia Gorge bridge and the sea, with minimum flow restrictions for when water could not be taken.

A Water Conservation Order here prevented more than 70 cumecs of water being taken from the river, with the highest daily abstraction at 42 cumecs in September last year.

Environment Canterbury’s general manager of regulatory implementation, Paul Hulse said the Rakaia River was a vital habitat for indigenous birds, aquatic species and a recreation hotspot.

He said it was a major source of hydroelectricity and it also supplied irrigation water to hundreds of farms, managed by consents.

“Each water take consent contains conditions to ensure that the volume is documented and that excess water is not taken, especially when river flow is low.”

Its water and land science manager, Elaine Moriarty said more work was needed to identify the causes of the declining fish populations in Canterbury’s rivers.

“However, there are interactions between climate change and land and water use pressures that may affect hāpua fish communities.”

She said a NIWA report showed changes in ocean conditions were likely a significant driver causing a decline in the survival rates of migratory fish, including Stokell’s smelt larvae.

Extraction not intended to be to be at river’s detriment – irrigators

Canterbury had the largest amount of agricultural land being irrigated across Aotearoa, at just under 480,000 hectares in 2022.

Home to more than a million dairy cows, the region now accounted for around 70 percent of the country’s total dairy farming irrigation.

Industry group Irrigation New Zealand represented water irrigation schemes and companies nationwide.

Chief executive, Karen Williams said water was extracted for a variety of uses in Mid Canterbury, and the schemes adhered to consent conditions.

“There are a lot of arable farms growing different seed and arable crops, there’s irrigated sheep and beef, and dairy,” she said.

“They are not wanting to extract water to the river’s detriment.”

Williams said E-Can was monitoring over-allocation closely, and building more water storage infrastructure would ease the pressure by harnessing rainwater while it was abundant.

“We need to capture and store that water because everyone needs that water, for potable water, anglers and recreation, all wanting to use it.”

Do irrigators’ fish screens work?

Paul Hodgson said there was evidence locally and internationally that the fish screens being used by irrigators to keep fish out of irrigation systems were not all in line with modern designs for effectiveness.

Lyndon Slater said Fish and Game was concerned about the condition of fish screens, especially as consent requirements had strengthened over time.

“The issue being some of these consents are many years old, up to 30-odd years old, and the conditions around them at the time of consenting was not as stringent as it is now,” he said.

“In an ideal world, we would have 100 percent efficiency across our fish screens.”

But Karen Williams said irrigators were working to make sure their fish screens were working well.

“A lot of schemes have invested a lot of time and resources to getting [fish screens] as effective as possible.”

Research carried out by NIWA in 2020 showed the effectiveness of fish screen devices varied considerably nationwide, usually based on design, with modern devices outperforming older ones.

Further research revealed that regional councils nationwide were reporting non-compliant screens that often failed to meet recommended specifications and were ineffective at excluding small fish including native species.

[Jellyman, P.G. (2020a) Effectiveness trials for different fish screen materials: reporting of Year 1 trial results, NIWA Client Report 2020035CH: 37.]

[Jellyman, P.G. (2020b) Status report summarising fish screening issues across New Zealand, NIWA Client Report 2020027CH: 34.]

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Farmers are renewing calls for the Government to enforce the same animal welfare standards that local pig farmers face on imported pork.

A group of farmers, pork producers and advocates wrote to the Prime Minister and government ministers this week, calling for a “level playing field” among locally-produced and imported product.

The pork industry has wanted this for years now, with industry group NZPork warning that local producers were struggling against a flood of lower-welfare imports.

NZPork estimated that more than 63 percent of pork consumed in Aotearoa came from countries like United States, Spain, Germany and Canada.

In some of these countries, farmers still used sow stalls (narrow cages for pregnant pigs) which New Zealand banned, and had smaller space requirements or longer periods allowed for sows in farrowing crates (that have just given birth to protect the piglets).

It came after last year’s controversial move by the Government to allow farmers a decade grace period before enforcing stricter welfare regulations.

Waikato dairy farmer Walt Cavendish was about to transition his Matamata farming operation into free range pork farming.

He signed the letter addressed to the Government, having said farmers, consumers and the animals deserve high welfare standards.

“New Zealand led the way in 1999 with the Animal Welfare Act. It was a world leading piece of legislation,” he said.

“We made quite a clear decision as a country that animal welfare matters. And we seem to have gone down the road of insisting on that for our farmers, but not insisting that for our imports.”

“For these family farming families, they’re trying to compete with product that would just not be allowed to be farmed here.”

Cavendish had met with officials on the matter previously, and said New Zealand could legally enforce what was called a public morals exemption on importers

“The biggest argument that’s put is the trade implications.

“They’re just so nervous about it.

“Everyone keeps using the trade argument.”

But he said it would be unlikely that those exporting nations would take retaliatory action in response, considering the New Zealand market’s small scale.

“It’s just an argument to try and stop this going further, and that’s why I’m quite firm that the public morals exemption is our best way forward.

“And realistically, with such a low amount of the export from these countries, that they’re hardly going to worry about it.”

He believed people’s fears that pork prices would go up even further if we ditched imports was a “false narrative”, as the national pig herd would likely increase to meet demand.

“Because ultimately, you would be able to produce more, so the cost of production would go down.

“We don’t really feel that the price will go through the roof at all, and there are examples that Animal Policy International have done in their research, where we’re talking peanuts, you know, very little. We’re talking cents, not dollars, in relation to the price adjustment per kilogram of pork.”

But he acknowledged it was a significant concern for cash-strapped consumers, though many of them were passionate about animal welfare.

“One of the big things I get from people that comment to me is their fear of the price going up, because they can’t even now afford a lot of the meat products on the shelf.

Trade minister Todd McClay said if New Zealand introduced requirements based on our methods of production, this could potentially undermine our efforts to prevent other countries from applying unjustified measures that could impact negatively on our agricultural exports.

“Last year animal product exports worth $42 billion reached plates around the globe, making up more than half of our total goods exports.”

“New Zealand is a global leader in farmed animal welfare standards, which underpin our trade reputation and the high quality of our global exports.”

McClay said New Zealand works with other countries to improve animal welfare standards through our membership in the World Organisation for Animal Health and through bilateral collaboration.

“It is important to recognise that different countries have different production systems. Approaches to caring for animals are adapted to local conditions and applying the same standard can sometimes result in different welfare outcomes.”

Food and Agriculture Organization’s latest statistics show New Zealand imported more than 47,000 tonnes of pork in 2023.

The “Fair for Farmers” campaign was launched at the Northland Fieldays in Dargaville today that ran into Saturday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A community conservation effort is hoping to fund a new processing facility for wild deer in the deep south.

Deer numbers have been exploding in Fiordland National Park following the decline of viable commercial and taxpayer-funded helicopter operations over many decades.

The deer have been ravaging the bush and the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation hopes its planned abattoir in Te Anau will save precious bush and provide an outlet for culled deer.

General manager Roy Sloan said hunting is costly and this initiative could support it by selling meat to the market.

The Fiordland Project estimates that venison sales will help fund deer control operations in the National Park at a greater scale than is currently possible.

“It’s a charitable trust; we’re getting donations from various building companies around the country” Sloan said.

“Our goal is to raise $3 million to build this plant.”

The group of hunters and conservationists is confident funding can be secured.

Sloan is thrilled with the level of support shown for the project so far, with $2 million raised.

A number of tradies and professionals, including electricians and architects, have pledged their time to the project.

Plans of the building, seen by RNZ, show areas for skinning and boning, packaging and processing, and a chiller.

“We know that it’s costly to do deer recovery. We we know that the government can’t afford it, and we know that DOC can’t afford it,” Sloan said.

And while he admits it’s a gamble, he said the risk of a community model might just pay off.

“‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ That in five years we fall over. ‘But what’s the best that can happen?’ We could be still going and solve these problems.”

The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation also maintains a number of back-country huts in the area, including Fiordland National Park’s oldest hut.

How did wapiti become pests?

• wapiti are similar to red deer, but more pale and much larger and heavier
• The first wapiti were introduced into New Zealand in 1873, primarily for hunting
• By the 20th century, wild deer had spread throughout the forests, feeding on young trees, shrubs, ferns and ground cover plants
• From the 1920s, the government employed cullers to control deer populations
• In 1966 the first live deer were captured from the wild by helicopter
• By the 21st century, populations of wapiti and red deer have created major ecological problems
• Deer remain a pest species, significantly impacting native ecosystems

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Fairlie farmer who ended up with a shattered leg after a farm accident has spearheaded a fundraiser to get his local town a new helipad.

It was a normal day on farm for Andrew Hurst, he’d just returned from a bull sale when he was driving a two-wheeler round his farm.

In a split second he was under a Hilux that he had not seen coming from the other direction.

He was airlifted to Christchurch where he spent weeks in hospital undergoing over 10 surgeries to put his leg back together.

Hurst credits the skill and speed of the rescue helicopter with saving his leg and after recovering he quickly went about fundraising $90,000 for a new helipad.

“I felt Fairlie needed something better than just a piece of grass to land on.”

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter is flying into Fairlie on Thursday to officially open the new helipad.

Hurst said it had been a real community effort, with the local Lions Club, companies the Fairlie Community Board, and the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust getting involved.

He admitted building the helipad was more complex than he first anticipated.

“Initially I thought I’d just be able to go down with a digger, scrape a bit of grass off and pour some concrete.”

“It turns out there’s a lot more involved in a helipad than that! But the helipad is as good as it could ever be, I’m stoked with what the community has achieved.”

Hurst said he would hate to think the rescue helicopter couldn’t help someone because it couldn’t land.

“This new helipad is on an IFR route, which means helicopters can fly here in low cloud or more adverse weather conditions.”

“We are a small, rural community, the rescue helicopter is the fastest way we can access critical care – the helipad will save lives,” he said.

Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust chief executive Christine Prince said the Fairlie community has shown an extraordinary level of commitment and heart throughout the helipad project.

“This helipad is a meaningful investment in the future health and safety of Fairlie which will benefit families for generations.”

She said the opening of the helipad is part of a major transformation of the region’s rescue helicopter service, known as MISSION 2026.

The Trust has purchased three state-of-the-art H145 rescue helicopters for the Canterbury West Coast region.

The first of these helicopters is now in service, with work underway to make the other two mission-ready.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Labour politicians are dusting off their gumboots and heading to the farm for their annual meeting with Federated Farmers on Thursday.

Federated Farmers started the get-together three years ago to better the relationship with the party.

President Wayne Langford said there was a gap in the relationship and a gap in knowledge of how farmers and the industry worked.

There would be a closed door chat followed by a farm tour around Ashburton on Friday.

Langford said decisions politicians made had a huge impact on farm so it was vital Federated Farmers had a relationship with the major parties.

“I think that what we’ve seen over the last decade would show that it’s a massive impact and can drastically change the way that farms operate.

“So the better the relationship, the better the understanding from MPs and ministers around what’s going on the farm, the better the results that we can get for farmers and ultimately the whole country as well.”

Langford said Labour had not signaled any policy yet so the group was excited to get round the table and have a chat.

It was no secret under the previous Labour government farmers felt bogged down with policy and new regulations.

Langford was hopeful if elected Labour would have a better acknowledgment of what farmers did and the contribution they made to the country.

“If I use emissions and water as an example, you know, what are we actually doing there? What effect are we having and what do the results look like over time?

“You know, under the last Labour government a lot of farmers almost felt like they were screaming against the wall and just not being heard.”

Langford said there had been a turn around with Jo Luxton becoming Labour’s spokesperson for agriculture.

“I think it was time for a fresh voice and Jo Luxton certainly brought a sense of calmness to the situation where there was a little bit of heat in the conversation when Damien [O’Connor] finished up.”

He said Labour leader Chris Hipkins had also put in the hard work.

“We’ve gone from Chris Hipkins showing up at our conference three years ago not knowing a whole lot about agriculture to now being able to stand in front of my national council for 45 minutes without assistance speaking about our sector and answering questions.

“We see that as a real success of what we’re doing here when we’ve got the leader of the opposition that can do that freely and speak frankly to farmers. That’s a good place for us to be.”

Labour’s agriculture spokesperson Jo Luxton said she was looking forward to chatting with farmers but said it was too early to mention any policies the party was working on.

“After the last election it’d be fair to say that things weren’t in the best space with the agricultural sector, so it’s something that’s important to me, to improve that relationship.

“One of the things farmers have said to us loud and clearly is that there was too much too fast, some things felt unachievable so now we’re moving forward and making sure we really listen and understand what the issues are and the best way to address them.”

When asked about the current government’s handling of farming policy, Luxton said Labour had concerns about how the environmental side of things seemed to have slid.

“I’ve also heard from some in the agricultural sector that they are also concerned about that, there’s been comments made to me that the government talks up a big game, but they’re actually not seeing any real benefit on farm.

“But then you also hear the other side of the coin too, where, you know that things are going well, there is a lot of positivity out there amongst the agricultural sector.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Strong sales of premium apple varieties into Asia and the Middle East has led Scales Corporation to report a massive jump in profit.

The company’s net profit for the 2025 financial year was $117.7 million – a 137 percent lift on the year before.

Revenue was $899.9 million, up 54 percent on 2024.

The company’s horticulture division, Mr Apple, produced an underlying result of $65.2 million up 73 percent on the year before.

Managing director Andy Borland said horticulture delivered an outstanding result driven by increased apple export volumes and average prices.

“Mr Apple’s own-grown export volume was 21 percent up on last year, with our strategically important markets of Asia and Middle East comprising 84 percent of total fruit sold.

“Premium volumes accounted for approximately 74 percent of total export sale volumes, with significant growth in Dazzle and Posy as well as Red Sports varieties. We estimate that Premium apple varieties will account for around 80 percent of export volumes by 2027.”

Last year Scales also bought 240 hectares of apple orchards from Hawke’s Bay company Bostock.

Borland said the acquisition was a key component of this result, allowing it to fast-track its long-term strategy of investing in apple varieties targeted to the Asia and Middle East markets.

He said the company’s juice business, Profuit delivered another exceptional performance underpinned by strong sales prices in export markets.

Scales pet food business saw increased sales to South East Asia and The United States – the underlying result lifted 33 percent to $73.9 million.

It’s logistics arm which provides international freight services delivered another record underlying result of $7.6 million, an increase of 10 percent.

Borland noted logistics processed a significant increase in volumes due to strong volumes from the dairy sector and a positive cherry season, providing an extremely robust result for the division. It also benefited from strong apple volumes.

The outlook for the year ahead remains positive.

Company chair Mike Petersen said In FY2026, global proteins is expected to perform strongly and continue to realise the benefits of its increased investments.

“Mr Apple has commenced picking and packing for the 2026 apple season, with a crop of around 3.5 million TCEs forecast. Pricing is expected to be favourable.

“Logistics is expected to contribute positively and has seen continued strong air freight demand in the year to date,” he said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has proposed new options to improve pig and sheep traceability so it can better respond to disease outbreaks.

While counting sheep may put some to sleep – keeping track of the animals and where they had been could be vital when it came to disease management.

At the moment, when sheep were moved between farms, saleyards and meatworks, farmers were required to fill out animal status declarations or ASDs – on paper or in PDF form.

The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) has put out a proposal to improve traceability for sheep and pigs.

The three options included – staying with the status quo, moving to a fully electronic mob tracing system or including sheep in NAIT, The National Animal Identification and Tracing System.

Beef and Lamb chair Kate Acland said moving to electronic monitoring was the preferred option.

“Beef and Lamb supports doing it under it the ASD system but moving to fully electronic forms – it’s already in place and relatively low cost compared to the other options and it’s simple and practical.

“We support improving the traceability in the livestock system, sheep is a gap at the moment – we just need something that is practical and useful on farm.”

Currently cattle and deer were tracked individually under NAIT and farmers paid a levy per animal.

Acland said that was not necessary with sheep.

“Bringing sheep under NAIT would be a lengthy process as it would require changes to the legislation and there would be a greater cost for farmers whereas an ASD is something farmers already use so it just makes sense to use a system that’s already in place.”

One option the MPI proposal did not include was individually tracking each sheep – as Australia, Canada, the UK and the EU did.

The proposal pointed out that of the 38 members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), New Zealand was one of 11 countries that did not individually trace sheep.

“Of these 11 countries, New Zealand stands out as being highly reliant on exports of animal-based primary products.”

MPI said New Zealand could be expected to follow global practice and move towards traceability of individual sheep in the future.

“However, we do not discuss individual traceability as an option because a significant amount of work with stakeholders and providers is needed to understand the costs, benefits, and operational resourcing required for this option,” the consultation document said.

Acland said sheep were run in much larger mobs in New Zealand and the benefits of individual tracing would not outweigh the significant costs this would impose on farmers.

Submissions on the proposal close on 5 April.

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