News
FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 1, 2022
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Dairy sours on ‘false’ defence of EU deal Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com DAIRY exporters are keeping up their barrage of criticism against what they say is the Government’s failure to own up to poor dairy market access from the recent trade deal with the European Union. The Dairy Companies Association has already rubbished the Government’s claims of $600 million in annual gains for the industry from last month’s agreement, saying gains won’t even come close to that figure. It also accused Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of gifting an advantage to EU negotiators by letting slip a weakening in New Zealand’s negotiating bottom lines for meat and dairy in the final few weeks of the talks. Now DCANZ has unleashed its ire on Trade Minister Damien O’Connor for what it says is his repetition of false claims by European farming unions about NZ’s dairy market access. Writing in a recent Farmers Weekly Pulpit column, O’Connor quoted EU farming union Copa and Cogeca, which said NZ dairy exporters already had access to quotas for 75,000 tonnes of annual butter exports to the EU and 11,000t for cheese. The free trade agreement would add 25,000t of butter and 15,000t of cheese to those totals.
“They have said the deal has painful compromises for [EU] farmers,” O’Connor wrote. However, DCANZ chair Malcolm Bailey said the pre-FTA quotas quoted by Copa and Cogeca and referenced by O’Connor were dated, and overstated the actual access NZ exporters had to the European dairy market before the FTA .
Dealing in fact is far better than going as far as what appears to be spinning the numbers to make them look more than what they are. Malcolm Bailey Dairy Companies Association The pre-FTA quotas, he said, were 47,000t of butter and 6,000t of cheese. Both quotas had been slashed as a result of Britain’s exit from the EU two years ago, and have not been restored by the EU despite objections by NZ to the World Trade Organisation. DCANZ executive director Kimberly Crewther said it was disappointing to see O’Connor
repeating such obvious falsehoods from European agricultural protectionists. “The EU industry is using incorrect numbers, possibly because it is politically convenient to do so,” she said. “They are as aware of the postBrexit cuts to quota volumes as we are.” DCANZ’s Bailey said O’Connor repeating Copa and Cogeca’s false figures made the FTA with the EU look better than it actually was. “There certainly seems to have been an element of spin when explaining the outcome of the deal to the wider public of NZ and that is disappointing. “Dealing in fact is far better than going as far as what appears to be spinning the numbers to make them look more than what they are.” In a short statement O’Connor responded by saying the article’s purpose was to point out how farming groups in the EU viewed the deal. “There are different views as to the impacts of the trade deal,” said O’Connor. “My view is we focus on these new opportunities. “The trade deal offers improved conditions to a market that’s effectively been blocked for our dairy exporters in particular.” Bailey said he did not accept O’Connor’s defence for publishing the Copa and Cogeca figures.
FALSEHOODS: DCANZ executive director Kimberly Crewther says it was disappointing to see Trade Minister Damien O’Connor repeat the obvious falsehoods peddled by EU farming lobbyists.
“I don’t buy into that argument at all. The deal is a lousy deal absolutely for dairy. “The highly protectionist attitude of a few people in Europe doesn’t cover up what is a lousy deal.” DCANZ has rubbished the Government’s claims the new quota will lead to an eventual
$600m annual gain for the NZ dairy industry. It says high in-quota tariffs mean they will not be viable for exporters to use most of the time. “The new butter quota doesn’t even get us back to what we had 20 years ago when the EU butter market was 20% smaller,” Crewther said.
Otago farmers pass aerial inspection with flying colours OTAGO Regional Council staff are pleased with the intensive winter grazing practices by farmers that they saw during three aerial inspections during May and June. While 12% of farms had issues and will be subject to an inspection by council staff, the council’s principal compliance specialist, Mike Cummings, said
there were plenty of excellent examples of intensive winter grazing along with some potential issues. These included issues such as crops being planted in critical source areas where there is a risk of sediment flowing into waterways, and some buffer zones near waterways that were
narrower than desirable. “It was obvious from the flyover the majority of farmers were making a targeted effort to develop protections around the at-risk areas on their properties,” Cummings said. He said from 2023 resource consent will be required to graze critical source areas such as gullies
and swale, and land steeper than 10 degrees. Margins alongside wetlands, streams, lakes or drains need to be at least 5m without a resource consent. A further 12% of those inspected do not need any follow up and 66% will receive a “catchment response”. This means that
industry, catchments groups or ORC catchment advisors will have an opportunity to work with groups of farmers on education targeting the risks in their catchments. The council plans to make two more flights, one later this month and a final one in August, provided the weather allows.
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