Full cabinet
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the cogs of Cabinet.
Dairy farmers are welcoming the launch of milk price futures and options contracts.
Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard says the contracts won't be for everyone, but this will give NZ dairy farmers a risk management tool that makes their businesses less susceptible to large price fluctuations.
"It will put us on a more level playing field with most of our international competitors who already have this sort of tool available to them," says Hoggard.
"Price volatility within a season is extremely difficult to address because production is based on a biological system, so having certainty about the price you will receive at the end of the season will remove a lot of pressure for dairy farmers."
Hoggard urged dairy farmers interested in the NZX milk price and futures options contracts to get professional advice.
"While it will provide farmers with certainty on price there's always someone on the downside when futures are traded. Farmers must get sound independent advice so that they're aware of how this approach changes their risk profile and what this might look like for them at the end of the season."
NZX has formal approval from the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for its proposed futuers trading, expected to launch next month.
NZX head of markets Mark Peterson says this is a milestone in commodity risk management for NZ's agricultural sector.
"With 95% of their product sold overseas, NZ dairy farmers are highly exposed to the global dairy market. They have few tools available to help them manage milk price risk which leaves farmers at a disadvantage to their overseas counterparts in the US or Europe, who have access to a wide range of risk management tools.
"Although futures and options contracts will not be suited to everyone, they are a key step towards building a meaningful risk management culture."
Once the contracts are available for trading on NZX's derivatives market, all parties will be required to trade through an NZX broker.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.