Category: Rural

Source: Radio New Zealand

The largest pastoral farmer in Aotearoa, Pāmu Farming, is sending $10 million in special dividends back to its owner the Crown, after the historic sale of Fonterra’s consumer brands business.

Shareholders received their capital repayment from the dairy co-operative’s Mainland Group divestment this week, including $9.5 million for Pāmu, formerly Landcorp.

The firm manages nearly 360,000 hectares across 112 farms involving the livestock, horticulture and forestry sectors nationwide.

Chief executive Mark Leslie said the board was confident to make the payment.

He said the business had been focused on improving performance, as it reached the midpoint of a five-year reset.

“Over the past three years we have been focused on lifting on-farm performance, improving productivity, and running a tighter, more disciplined business. The results we’re seeing reflect the commitment and hard work of our teams across the country. Our strong commercial performance requires high people, environmental and animal welfare outcomes, as well as responsibility for the communities in which we operate.

“As a state-owned enterprise, Pāmu manages its land and farming portfolio to deliver a financial return, return land under Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements, and grow the future of agriculture for generations of New Zealanders.”

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Simeon Brown said the payment would bring Landcorp’s total dividends to the Crown to $25m for the 2025/26 financial year.

He said it demonstrated confidence in the firm’s financial position and its ability to deliver value for taxpayers.

“Every dollar returned to the Crown is available to support the government’s investment in the public services New Zealanders rely on, including schools, hospitals, roads, and frontline services like police. That is central to our plan to deliver better outcomes for Kiwis.

“I’m pleased to see the continued improvement in Landcorp’s performance, with recent half-year results pointing to a strong full-year outcome, supported by improved operations and favourable commodity prices.”

Pamu recorded a $95m profit after tax for the six months to December 31, following a $139m profit for the year to June 2025.

The $4.2 billion sale will transition well-known brands like Anchor and Mainland to French dairy giant Lactalis.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Fonterra’s thousands of shareholding dairy farmers are being encouraged to spend their Mainland Group capital return wisely with a focus on farm resilience.

Tuesday marked the payday for around 8000 shareholders of the co-operative for the divestment of its consumer brands business of well-known products like Anchor butter and Mainland cheese, to French dairy giant, Lactalis.

Proceeds to farmer-shareholders will vary, but the payout was calculated to be around $400,000 on average each, which is now trickling into bank accounts.

It followed overwhelming support for the deal, with 98 percent of shareholders voting in favour of it, in February.

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley expected to see farmers pay down debt, and maybe some maintenance or capital spending for the farm.

He said rural communities in key farming areas would benefit from the cash injection.

“This is a big, one-off payment.

“It will take time for some of the spending impacts to flow through, but that is going to benefit rural communities. And also, we think it’ll put the dairy farming sector in a more resilient position.”

Tuffley said some older farmers were planning their departure from the industry.

“It will also set up some dairy farmers for their future as well, particularly if they’re looking at diversifying and putting that money to use in other ways that will help them at that time of life if they move off the farm.”

‘Never hard to spend money on a dairy farm’

Meanwhile, John Dawson, a Morrinsville-based farm management consultant of nearly 30 years, said paying down debt would be the number one priority for most of the farmers.

He said others were also planning on re-investing the money into their farm operations, like the cow shed.

“It’s never hard to spend money on a dairy farm. There are often deferred maintenance issues that need to be attacked, things like fencing and milking plant maintenance.

“There are compliance issues, which you can throw a lot of money at, perhaps upgrades to effluent systems and environmental initiatives.”

He said another option could be opportunities for improvement projects, like new buildings or upgrades to machinery.

“The other thing is that there’s the opportunity for expanding the business, you know, more cows, upgrades to cow sheds.”

Dawson said the payout also represented a chance for succession planning, which a few clients were looking at.

How to keep the payments tax-free

The payments were not considered income or a dividend, so would be tax-free for shareholders.

But much of the shareholding will be held within farming companies, which could funnel payments through the farm company bank account.

Tax adviser Craig Macalister of Southland firm Findex said tax implications could bite farmers if they spent their payments from the farm bank account on a personal asset, like a new holiday home or a holiday.

“There hasn’t really been a lot of discussion on what happens when people want to take that money out of their dairy milking company, and that’s where the tax implications could bite,” he said.

“Capital can go into a company, but it can’t come out in any other form that is not taxable unless you effectively wind that company up. That’s the problem that people will face.”

Macalister recommended farmers speak with their accountants before spending up.

From the sale of Mainland Group to France’s Lactalis, the 8000 or so farmer-shareholders will get their split of $3.2 billion, while the remaining $1b will go into the co-op.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

It is pay day for dairy giant Fonterra’s 8000 or so shareholding farmer-suppliers from the sale of the co-operative’s Mainland Group consumer business.

The proceeds from the dairy co-op’s multibillion-dollar sale of its Mainland consumer brands business were landing in most shareholders’ bank accounts this week.

The average payout would be about $400,000 from the $4.2 billion sale of the business behind well-known brands including Anchor butter, Kāpiti ice creams and Mainland cheese.

Tuesday marked the official payment date, after the sale was first proposed in August last year.

Reducing debt a priority

Waikato farmer Gary Reymer, who had supplied milk to the co-op for nearly 50 years, ran around 500 cows on two farms near Cambridge.

He started with the co-op as a sharemilker in the late 1970s, originally to the New Zealand Dairy Group, before the merger with Kiwi Co-operative Dairies formed Fonterra.

Reymer said it would differ how farmers used their payment, as some were more comfortable into the long-term than others.

“Some will have drinks on them, some will take a bit of travel, some will go for debt reduction, and some will go for capital improvement,” he said.

“For ourselves, it’ll just be consolidating our position, nothing extravagant… debt reduction.”

Reymer was among the 98 percent of shareholders who supported the divestment of Mainland Group, and said it was smart to sell it because the brands were no longer adding value.

“Turning off the brands business was probably the final conclusion over many, many years, decades on the back of discussion,” he said.

“Everybody’s just come to the understanding that it was a really difficult nut to crack, and this is probably the best strategy.”

Reymer said not all was lost, as the deal enabled the co-op to continue supplying the ingredients for the new owner, Lactalis.

“I see it as very much a win-win and I think that’s where the majority of shareholders have got to.

“We’ve lived through farming long enough or farmed for long enough and there’s plenty of cycles, and you’ve got to make sure you bank the good times so you can move to the bad times.”

Debt, farm equipment and family holiday

Meanwhile, for Waikato’s Wallis farming family, the mega-payment was going towards reducing debt, buying new farm equipment and a long-awaited family holiday.

Sixth-generation farmer Ross Wallis ran around 285 cows on 108 hectares with his wife and four kids near Raglan. Wallis joined the co-op in the year 2000 and said the consumer brands business had even been a “bone of contention” since back then.

“I think with consumer goods, it was kind of – you were pulled too many ways, and it was just evident that we’re really not a consumer business. We’re not good at it, for whatever reason that might be.

“But ingredients and business-to-business foodservice, I mean we’re exceptional at and we do really well. We’re probably world leaders in that space.”

In support of the deal, he said his payments were already accounted for.

“There’ll be a good chunk of it going into debt reduction, which is greatly needed. But also we’ve just purchased a tow and fert.”

He said the $34,000 investment into the 1000-litre piece of equipment would help reduce his fertiliser bill.

“With fertiliser prices skyrocketing, we just need to be more efficient at what we’re putting on, and so tow and fert allows you to put on less with more bang for your buck.”

Now only using locally sourced fertilisers, Wallis said the new equipment would allow for a more efficient use of spraying lime, small seeds and the seaweed-based fertilisers he used to improve soil biology.

“We’re [also] going to put a little bit towards an overseas holiday later in the year.”

Wallis said many farmers would likely invest in technology to drive on-farm efficiencies, as he had.

“I think we’ve got some exciting times ahead.”

Deferred maintenance, effluent system and succession

Jonn Dawson, a Morrinsville-based farm management consultant of almost 30 years, said many of his clients will be using the payout to pay down debt as their number one priority.

Dawson said others were also planning on reinvesting the money into their farm operations, with the cowshed especially the basis of all dairy farm operations.

“It’s never hard to spend money on a dairy farm,” Dawson said. “There are often deferred maintenance issues that need to be attacked, things like fencing and milking plant maintenance.”

He said compliance and projects like new buildings or machinery updates were other options.

“There are compliance issues, which you can throw a lot of money at, perhaps upgrades to effluent systems and environmental initiatives,” he said.

“The other thing is that there’s the opportunity for expanding the business, you know, more cows, upgrades to cow sheds.”

Dawson said the payout also represented a chance to consider succession planning, which a few of his clients were looking at.

He said the cash injection will be good for communities which supported dairy farmers, especially in regions like Waikato and Taranaki.

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley did not expect any consumer spending binge, but obvious moves to pay down debt and do some maintenance and capital spending.

“This is a big one-off payment,” he said.

“It will take time for some of the spending impacts to flow through, but that is going to benefit rural communities. And also, we think it’ll put the dairy farming sector in a more resilient position.”

He said a theme coming through was that older farmers were looking to their departure from the industry.

“It will also set up some dairy farmers for their future as well, particularly if they’re looking at diversifying and putting that money to use in other ways that will help them at that time of life if they move off the farm.”

Meanwhile, the co-op’s president of global ingredients Richard Allen was announced on Monday as the new incoming chief executive, following the resignation of Miles Hurrell, announced last month.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

You wouldn’t eat a sprig of rosemary, a whole spring onion stalk, or raw garlic. Some produce best serves the palette as an ingredient – like fresh cranberries.

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“Asking someone to taste them is a little bit like saying ‘well, here’s a little piece of rhubarb’ or ‘here’s a crabapple’,” cranberry farmer Kate Buckley says.

“They’re an ingredient. You use them in things, so we make smoothies.”

Buckley is one half of Cranberries Westland, New Zealand’s only cranberry farm, near Hokitika on the West Coast. The farm neighbours native forest, and workers will often spot a kererū over the fence, or hear the screech of a weka.

Most birds (bar the pūkeko) stay away from the berry beds.

“They’re too sour for them,” husband and farmer Kevin MacGregor told Country Life.

He leads the farming side of the operation, managing the experimental grow beds, and conversing with farmers in the United States to learn more about the berry.

MacGregor farmed deer in the North Island before his second job as a fridge repairman landed him in a field of cranberries.

“We moved down here,” Kate said, “and Kevin came to fix somebody’s freezer.”

Kevin and the previous owners, Marj and Tony Allan, got talking, eventually buying the business off them in 2017.

Cranberries grow on bushy beds, low to the ground. A new bed will fruit within two years, but it takes five years for them to embed themselves in the soil enough to be harvested.

The area’s climate suits the berries well, and New Zealand lacks the pests and mould that wreak havoc on farms in the US.

But there are drawbacks – the key one being that they’re on their own.

“We don’t have colleagues to work things out with,” Kate said. “[Kevin] spends quite a bit of time working with cranberry growers in sort of British Columbia, Washington State, Oregon State, so that West Coast side … so he can take that learning, and apply it here.”

It’s been almost 10 years of non-stop learning for the couple – but there’s something about the berries they can’t get enough of.

The fresh fruits are crunchy and tart, which is why Kate turns them into smoothies, jellies and relishes. They work well on a cheeseboard, when cooked with a slab of venison, or popped into a glass of gin with some rosemary.

“Cranberries are a superfruit, and they taste great when you partner them up with other things.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Please publish to Country page and Country Life page (CLI) by ****** Saturday 8AM *********

The trusty ute holds a strangely unique position in New Zealand’s economy. Loved and loathed in equal measure, the ubiquitous utility vehicle – with its tray on the back – has, in the past decade, often ranked among New Zealand’s best selling.

In 2025, four out of ten new vehicles sold were utes.

The legend goes that in 1932 a farmer’s wife in Victoria, Australia wrote to the vehicle maker Ford requesting “a vehicle that could take us to church on Sunday and carry our pigs to market on Monday.”

When Ford Australia designer Lewis Bandt created the Ford Model 40 coupe with an integrated tray at the back, released in 1934, the trusty ute was born.

The Methven A&P show pays homage to the ute each year with its Ute Muster, when rows of utes of every size and shape line up to be judged.

They range from Morris Minors, HG Holdens and Datsun 1200 pickups to the big bush-whacking variety with tyres that can take you anywhere, snorkels for fording rivers and winches to pull you out of trouble.

Utes evolved over many years reflecting changing times particularly on-farm but also in the city, Ute Muster judge Grant Reith told Country Life.

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“After the horse and cart and traction engines came tractors then people wanted something a wee bit more versatile.

“Land Rovers and Jeeps played their part after the war.”

He said trucks were for farm use or farm related jobs in town.

“When the Toyotas arrived with four-wheel-drive a lot of people started to use their ute as a second car, so one half could go in one direction on Saturday with the kids playing rugby, and the other half go in the other direction playing their netball or hockey.”

One of the stars at the muster was the oldest and smallest ute – a restored 1950s Morris utility truck which once belonged to Burnett’s, the Mid Canterbury transport company.

Josh Hood and Jerry Power were repainting the vehicle when the original branding on the door was uncovered, inspiring its restoration.

“It’s just keeping the legacy going of these awesome old companies and it’s just a good bit of history so no one forgets they existed,” Hood told Country Life.

The muster included a “Hers Not His” category for the growing number of female ute drivers.

Many are attracted by their comfort, safety features and the versatility of modern double cab models.

“It’s really about trying to give chicks in the area their own space and trying to show them that it’s not just a boys’ world, and girls and women have the opportunity to actually show off what they have,” organiser Loganne Brown said.

“They’re incredibly practical. It’s also a lot to do with farming with a lot more women coming into agriculture, which is fantastic, and just getting out there four-wheel driving, overlanding, camping.”

“There are also many clubs like Chics Off Road and New Zealand Girls 4×4 that are New Zealand-wide and in Aussie too.

“It’s all about creating a community which is the biggest thing.”

But with the surging petrol cost, the use of the vehicle for leisure and commuting is becoming unaffordable for many, she said.

“A lot of us are getting stuck between rent, groceries and fuel now, because fuel is so much more expensive.

“There’re a lot of my mates, who were going to be coming up from Alexandra, and some from Nelson and they have just had to pull out because they just can’t afford it.”

Amy Ingram found her 2012 Ford Ranger, her first ute, in the North Island and “with no idea how to drive a manual”, she made it down south.

“I’ve got a team of four working dogs. I really enjoy the ute scene and going off roading, adventuring, and I can tow a horse float behind it too.”

The youngest ute owner at the muster, 16-year-old Mount Hutt College student Emma Kinzett, started working towards her dream vehicle, an early 2000s Ford Courier, when she was just 13 years old.

“I had three jobs, a couple on farms, another one cleaning on Thursdays, and I have been saving up for years.”

“I was scrolling on Trade Me one day, and it came up, and I’d been looking for a truck, and it kind of looked perfect, so on my birthday I went out and had a look at it, and it’s just what I imagined it would be.”

Kinzett’s “absolute dream” was to become a shepherd, a goal which could be made possible with her trusty ute and its crate on the back for the dogs.

“A neighbour was speaking to my mum, ‘I always see your daughter cleaning her truck.’ Yeah, that’s me.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Global dairy prices have fallen for the first time this year amid uncertainty about oversupply in the market.

The average price at the fortnightly auction fell 3.4 percent to US$4228 (NZ$7.378) a tonne.

The price of wholemilk powder, which influences farmer payouts, fell 0.7 percent to US$3687 US dollars a tonne.

Prices for other products were generally weaker, including sharp falls for butter and cheese.

Butter prices fell 8.1 percent, while cheddar and mozzarella fell 3.1 and 6.2 percent respectively.

Skim milk powder fell 1.6 percent.

In a note, NZX head of dairy insights Cristina Alvarado said the supply overhang and freight uncertainty were weighing on demand.

“The outcome reflects a convergence of previously flagged pressures, most notably the significant volume of product still in transit from earlier purchasing activity this calendar year, alongside rising logistical and cost uncertainty linked to fuel shipment disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz,” she said.

Alvarado said there was “ample product” in the global market, and New Zealand’s February shipments showed strong year-on-year growth.

Looking ahead, she said the medium-term outlook was “more balanced”.

“Elevated energy costs are expected to feed into higher feed and production costs globally, tightening margins,” Alvarado said.

“At the same time, vegetable oil prices continue to outpace dairy fats, which should support substitution-driven demand for milk fats,” she said.

“Should production growth begin to slow under margin pressure, this could act as a stabilising force for prices in coming events.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Artisan food producers and speciality food suppliers have expressed their concern about how growing fuel prices will affect their online businesses.

Among those affected is Wonky Box, a delivery service that supplies customers with local produce with imperfections that don’t meet the standards of big supermarket chains.

One of the owners, Angus Simms, described the pressure they’re facing as a “double-edged sword”.

“So we obviously source in and work with producers who work around the country, who are sending products to us. These producers are under significant pressure, especially our growers who rely on diesel and fuel to get product out to consumers.

“At the same time, we’re also in the business of getting our products to our customers doorsteps, so I suppose [there is] the home delivery element as well,” he said.

Simms said that his business is subscription based, meaning their customers expect a set price.

“We can’t chop and change weekly like most fuel variable rates do at the moment. So, it’s going to be a tricky for us to manage, but right now we haven’t decided to make any changes,” he said.

Meanwhile, co-owner of Cranberries Westland, Kate Buckley, said fuel prices was a big topic of conversation between her and other artisan producers recently at The Christchurch Food Show.

“For a lot of us, the online business is a really important part of our business model and of course fuel costs and selling online is going to be a challenge, so we’re just going to have to roll with it and see what happens,” she said.

Kevin Jenkins, founder of artisan cheese subscription service, The Cheese Wheel, said they’ve so far been shouldering the extra costs.

“We’ve tried really, really hard to look for savings within the firm, so it’s a bit tough, but we’re more concerned about the cheesemakers really.”

Jenkins said they sell cheeses that are not available at big retailers, so he was hopeful that subscribers would continue to support small artisans.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The government is lending $18 million to a controversial dam project in Central Hawke’s Bay.

The Tukituki Water Security Project, formerly the Ruataniwha Dam, is currently undergoing a $6.8m pre-construction feasibility study funded by businesses, water uses and the government.

The new $18 million loan is from the government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund, and will be spent on the next phase of work running through to 2027.

It includes detailed engineering and design, and financing and commercial work with a final investment decision expected in 2028.

The proposed project would see a dam built on the Makaroro River, a tributary of the Tukituki River, and the flooding of 22 hectares of conservation land. The dam would be about 83m high in the Makaroro River and create a reservoir of approximately 93 million cubic metres, about seven kilometres long, and with a surface area of approximately 372 hectares.

The Ruataniwha plan was scuppered in 2017 by the Supreme Court, when it deemed a land swap unlawful.

But that could be overridden by the government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill.

Opponents of the dam launched a campaign in 2025 to stop the project, calling the rebranded project “the same pig, but with lipstick on”.

Tukituki Water Security Project chair Mike Petersen previously told RNZ the cost of the new project would not be known until a feasibility study was carried out.

A 2016 Regional Council report indicated the construction cost of the Ruataniwha dam could be $333m, with possible investment cost to farmers an additional $556m* taking it to more than $900m.

Associate Minister for Regional Development Mark Patterson is announcing the new funding loan in Central Hawke’s Bay this morning.

Petersen said the case for water storage in Hawke’s Bay was both urgent and well-evidenced.

“This announcement moves us from asking whether this project is feasible, to answering whether it is viable,” he said.

Petersen noted that the Hawke’s Bay Regional Water Assessment report found that even with significant improvements in water use, efficiency and conservation, by 2040 the region could experience a shortfall between demand and supply of freshwater of nearly 25 million cubic metres.

“Water storage is not a silver bullet when it comes to solving water security, however it must be part of the solution alongside other water efficiency measures. Without improved resilience, our environment, our communities and our economy will all suffer,” he said.

The group plans to lodge its Fast Track application mid-2026, which will include a land exchange with the Department of Conservation, which Petersen said will “both enlarge the area of conservation land and improve ecological values”.

The reservoir would release about 20 million cubic metres with an irrigation footprint of approximately 20,000 to 30,000 hectares.

New NZIER modelling shows the project could increase annual regional GDP by up to $693 million, and up to $452 million a year in additional household spending across the region.

Petersen said it was estimated the dam project will support 200 to 300 jobs during construction, and more than 1800 new permanent jobs once operational.

*The project was slated to get water to the farm gate, with farmers needing to invest in installing additional infrastructure.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Rural GPs are already facing challenges because of [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/591089/fuel-cost-jumps-40-in-a-week-who-s-feeling-it-most rising fuel prices and some are stocking up on extra medical supplies.

Ōpōtiki-based GP and clinical director of Pinnacle Midlands Health Network, Dr Jo Scott-Jones, has spoken to rural GPs about how fuel increases are affecting them.

He said doctors going out on prime calls – when GPs escort the ambulance service during emergency callouts – were already facing added costs.

“They’re already seeing the impact of the fuel prices on filling up the prime car, and they’re reflecting that there have been no increasing prime payments to help them with additional cost.

And Scott-Jones said GPs were preparing in other ways as well.

“People are looking ahead at potential stock issues and starting to order stock and medical supplies over and above what they would normally carry this time of year.

“They’re worried about suppliers and potentially cost of deliveries into the rural communities into the future as well.”

Scott-Jones said he knew of patients reluctant to drive to Waikato Hospital, and at his own practice more people were asking to speak to a doctor through their digital services.

He added that some practices were starting to ramp up their telehealth services, similar to what happened during the Covid pandemic, to minimise travel costs for patients.

“It would be great to see the hospital services thinking about this as well, for those patients who are coming in for a follow-up for outpatients as well.

“The Midlands region where I do most of my work, it can be several hours of driv[ing] to get to the hospital and then several hours to get back. Those additional costs are really significant.”

He supported the government’s $50 payment to help families with additional fuel costs.

However, he also wanted an urgent review of the current transport arrangements and support for patients who need to go into hospital.

“If we can help target really necessary medically important travel through a transport scheme, that would be really useful.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

At a time when both Wattie’s and McCain have announced factory closures, supermarket retailer Woolworths says sales of frozen vegetables have been declining.

Process Vegetables New Zealand chairman David Hadfield said there has been a significant drop in the demand for frozen vegetables, noting that diets and demographics are changing in Aotearoa.

“With Uber Eats etc, there’s not a lot of vegetables in the package that you get to eat. You know there will be a piece of meat, potentially some rice, or you might have potato and a sprinkling of vegetables on top – not the amount that you would have if you cooked the meal at home.”

Hadfield added that they were pushing through programmes in schools to teach year seven and eight children how to cook vegetables, but despite this “consumption seems to be dropping”.

He said with the current cost-of-living pressures they expect demand for cheaper frozen vegetables will increase, but added supermarket profit margins were not helping the situation.

According to Woolworths, 62 cents of every dollar spent in stores went to suppliers, describing their business as “low-margin, high-volume”.

“We keep about 2.3 cents and the remainder goes to paying wages and other operational costs, and investing in our store network,” a spokesperson said.

According to Stats NZ, the cost of fruit and vegetables combined [https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/selected-price-indexes-february-2026/

increased by 9.4 percent between February 2026 and the same time last year].

Meanwhile,Ministry of Health figures for the 2024-2025 year showed just 6.8 percent of adults on average were eating the recommended portions of vegetables.

President of United Fresh New Zealand Incorporated and 5+ A Day, Jerry Prendergast, said he had not seen a drop in demand for fresh vegetables, but he echoed Hadfield’s comments about having to compete with more processed fast food options.

Prendergast said he felt for families under pressure and there was a place for the likes of Uber Eats, but said fresh produce from supermarkets or other retailers remained a cheaper and healthier alternative to takeaways.

“There’s some exceptionally good value out there. Right now you’re into the change of seasons with your autumn crops, so we’re seeing more of the celery, silver beets, spinach being available [and] cabbages and cauliflower and even broccoli at this time of year.

“So, utilising what’s in season is the ideal for consumers to reduce their cost of living.”

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