Government appoints three new directors to Pāmu board
The Government has appointed three new members to the board of state farmer Landcorp Farming Ltd, trading as Pāmu.
State farmer Landcorp says it is working on creating a deer milk industry.
The SOE is talking to global customers and trialling products in markets for consumer feedback.
Landcorp general manager dairy operations Mark Julian told Dairy News it’s early days. “It’s [not] like the sheep milk industry which has products in the market,” he says.
The deer milk project is mostly R&D and looking at selective milk powder and skin care products for the global market.
Speaking earlier at the Pioneer Rural Professionals Conference in Taupo, Julian floated two possible futures for Landcorp: either a production-led future or a market-led future.
Landcorp is not looking at wholesale changes to its business model; it recently adapted Pamu as its brand name.
Julian says Pamu “works to establish products and partnerships to give our business the best chance of succeeding moving forward”.
He noted that Landcorp was keen to move from a pasture farming company to a food and farming company.
“Our core business will always be farming; our traditional sales will drive our revenue for the immediate future but brand business will provide us the consumer insights that hopefully take the risk out of our core business of farming.”
Julian says the sheep milk joint venture Spring Sheep, in Taupo, has been a winner: two years since its inception Spring Sheep has won awards for food and innovation.
“It’s a huge boost to our belief that differentiation and unique offerings are areas to target.”
Bradley Wadsworth lives on the family farm – Omega Station – in the Wairarapa about 30 minutes’ drive east from Masterton.
With global milk prices falling, the question is when will key exporting countries reach a tipping point where production starts to dip.
Rural contractors want the Government to include a national standard for air plans as part of its Resource Management Act reforms.
The biggest reform of local government in more than 35 years is underway.
An industry-wide project led by Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is underway to deal with the rising number of feral pests, in particular, browsing pests such as deer and pigs.
Three New Zealand agritech companies are set to join forces to help unlock the full potential of technology.
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