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DAMN THE DAMNERS Farmers take to the streets in Waipukurau. PAGE 12
Low hanging fruits, crops on the radar. PAGE 42
RURALNEWS
SEE PAGE 8
TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS
JULY 1, 2014: ISSUE 564
www.ruralnews.co.nz
China exports soar P E TE R BU R K E peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
A NEW era is unfolding for the meat industry with the rapid, unprecedented growth of the Chinese market, says the chief executive of the Meat Industry Association (MIA), Tim Ritchie. One hundred years ago the focus was on the UK market, but a new era arrived in the 1970s when Britain joined the European Union and New Zealand was forced to diversify into other markets
including more of Europe, North America and especially the Middle East. But with China now taking 40% of New Zealand’s lamb exports the paradigm has changed again. The China market’s importance to New Zealand is seen in a visit during the past few weeks by a group led by the Meat Industry Association chairman Bill Falconer. Ritchie says this was the highest powered overseas delegation in 40 years. It included chairmen and chief executives
Get off the fence
ilar to the MIA but with a much broader mandate, and they sort-of act as a bridge between the regulatory authority and the industry itself.” Ritchie says it was very important that top people from the meat industry fronted to demonstrate the supreme importance New Zealand places on that market. They wanted to tell the Chinese they were in the market for the long haul and wanted to understand their needs and establish good relations with government regulatory bodies dealing with imports into China. The meetings were very successful and will help develop better long term relationships. Following their meetings the New Zealanders stayed on for the World Meat Congress in Beijing with a worldwide attendance of at least 1000. China’s entry into the lamb market is producing excellent benefits for New Zealand. Lamb flaps, once considered low value, are popular in China in a dish called ‘hotpot’. The Chinese now pay more for flaps than they once paid for shoulders.
of all the leading meat companies, intent on relationship building with Chinese business people, trade associations and government officials. “The business in that part of the world has grown very quickly – probably more quickly than the relevant relationships at the regulatory and trade level. Many individual companies have relationships with their commercial partners there, but we haven’t done that at a whole-of-industry level with regulators and the trade bodies in China. They have associations sim-
SHEEP AND beef farmers should stop looking over the fence with envy at their colleagues in the dairy industry, says Beef + Lamb New Zealand chairman James Parsons. His comments follow those in a recent KPMG Agribusiness Agenda, that some sheep and beef farmers are losing self esteem as they see the business success of dairy farmers. But Parsons says sheep and beef farmers need to realise that it’s “not all beer and skittles” in the dairy sector, where farmers must endure early morning rising, long work hours, moving stock and regularly monitoring such things as pasture growth. “Sheep and beef farmers must stop looking over the fence at what other people are doing and instead start refining what they do themselves. “There are three types of farmers: those who look at their boots, those who look over the fence and those who look at the horizon.” Parsons says it’s a fact that dairy farmers tend to invest more in technology, but confidence drives that sort of investment. Many efficient sheep and beef farmers have per-hectare profit up there with dairy farmers. – Peter Burke
THREE GOLDS FOR ZESPRI Simon Limmer, Zespri’s general manager for China, shows off three identical gold kiwifruit. But don’t be deceived by the colour, because the taste of the three are quite different – sweet, sweet-and-sour and very sweet. The new kiwifruit are a sign the industry is now over the hump of PSA and things are looking brighter for growers. See story p9
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