Waimea Weekly
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Your Community Newspaper
Wednesday 27 November 2013
Learning to shear Page 6
Richmond
Tasman’s booming ecomony
A strong regional economy and growing business confidence are creating jobs throughout Nelson-Taman resulting in one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force survey for the September quarter showed that the unemployment rate for the region was just 3.9 per cent, well below the national average of 6.2 per cent. That’s down from 4.2 per cent in June this year and the 4.5 per cent recorded for the same quarter last year. Nelson Regional Economic Development Agency chief executive Bill Findlater says we traditionally have had the lowest unemployment but the economy is picking up and businesses are becoming more confident and that’s also having an impact on the figures. “It’s been a better year for us. I’m struggling to find any doom and gloom at the moment.”
Bright future
Page 18 - 19
Page 30
Simon Bloomberg
Senior reporter Reporter
simon@waimeaweekly.co.nz
Bill says the region’s primary industries are driving the economic recovery with horticulture “having a better year” and the forestry industry benefitting from high log prices. “When the primary sector has a good year it spreads through the whole region,” Bill says. Port Nelson’s business development manager Rob Hawkes says their log exports are booming on the back of high log prices with exports through Port Nelson and Picton reaching record levels. “We are seeing log prices higher than in 2011 which was the acknowledged industry high,” Rob says. “The Chinese economy is booming and that’s driving log prices up.
‘Perfect’ weekend for A&P show It is unknown how many people walked through the Nelson A&P Show gates on the weekend, but coordinator Annette Robinson says the feedback “had been excel-
lent” after a perfect weekend weather-wise. The Nelson A&P Show celebrated its 120th anniversary and while the goals had certainly changed since its
inception when it was based entirely on agriculture, Annette believed the animals always brings back the crowds. SEE PAGE 2
SEE PAGE 3
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