Organic dairy co-op files for liquidation
A co-operative touted as New Zealand's only 100% farmer-owned organic milk producer has gone bust.
New Zealand now has a rural/urban chasm rather than a gap, according to the KPMG Agribusiness Agenda released last week at Fieldays.
The report says while the farming industry has done a good job appealing to the minds of people, it has done little to appeal to their emotions.
Report author Ian Proudfoot says the easiest way to do this is to make an emotional connection with food. He says the word ‘food’ – unlike farming – can make much more of an emotional link with people. Proudfoot claims uncertainty surrounding the values of many primary sector organisations means the wider community don’t believe their claims.
“The messaging that came through in this year’s agenda – very clearly – was ‘swimmable’ means swimmable -- not by 2040 and not to a scientific standard.
“This is how somebody sitting in our office in Auckland today would understand it. We can’t keep trying to win these arguments with statistics of science, when these are emotive arguments.”
The 85-page agenda report is crammed with insightful, futuristic gems about what NZ should and could do to win public and consumer confidence and for the sector to take a greater slice of high-value consumer markets.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.