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.
This year's KPMG Agribusiness Agenda fires a timely shot over the bows of the NZ primary sector.
The key word is "complacency", a word somewhat akin to "she'll be right".
The report makes it clear that the world, like our sevens rugby team, has caught up with us and in some cases has overtaken us.
We have often joked and laughed about Irish and French farmers living the life of Riley on EU subsidies while we perform better. Now the joke's on us, as report author Ian Proudfoot points out: "Gallic passion has come into play and they -- not us -- are connecting more effectively with customers".
The report rightly challenges the governance of our primary industry organisations, with board members coming on via the old boy or girl networks. Proudfoot's model of a future thinking, highly skilled board to run organisations and a representative body to have oversight is good.
However, the latter needs to be more pitbull terrier than lapdog which is, sadly, the case of the Fonterra Shareholders' Council: good idea, dreadful result.
Representative scrutiny has to be seriously independent and not there to curry favour. Governance in some farmer organisations is pretty average and the boundary between governance and management is often blurred or overstepped.
The report highlights what Landcorp is doing and shows the SOE is a role model for how companies should act in turbulent, disruptive times and focus on adding value.
Making depressing reading is the dumbness of the bureaucracy in its management of science funding. It's a longstanding issue which needs urgent ministerial intervention.
Scientists, and the primary sector as a whole, have every reason to feel aggrieved at the overheads being stolen from good science money because of convoluted bureaucratic bidding processes.
KPMG and Ian Proudfoot, in particular, are to be congratulated for showing real leadership and insight into the future NZ is facing; they tell it as it is.
If primary sector organisations, and New Zealanders as a whole, don't buy into what KPMG is saying, we can only blame ourselves for any resulting mess.
'A lot of interest and positive responses' appears to be the way farmers are viewing the Government's initiative to hold a series of woolshed meetings around the country.
A Southland farming leader wants the regional council to delay a proposed regional rates hike, much of which is intended to fund flood protection works.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) says access to personal banking services in rural communities is fundamental to promoting outcomes that benefit Kiwi consumers.
A group set up to boost education and promotion of wool says it has made positive strides during the first year of its three-year strategy.
Meat processor ANZCO Foods says despite a challenging business environment, it has posted a net profit before tax of $61 million for 2023.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.