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OPINION: Part of the reason China is buying less of our dairy produce is their success growing their own supply.
It increased its self-sufficiency in milk production by 11 million metric tons/year from 2018 to 2023, or effectively as much as Australia’s current annual production.
China’s annual domestic production is now in the order of 40 billion litres of milk.
The country’s WMP imports plunged from an average of 820,000 metric tons in 2021 to a mere 430,000 metric tons in 2023.
More than half of that drop was at NZ’s expense – the downside to being the biggest supplier of WMP to China.
Aussie and Kiwi farmers once got good money for Friesian heifers to the China live export market but it certainly helped boost growth of their domestic supply.
One of the most galling aspects of the tariffs whacked on our farm exports to the US is the fact that, now more than ever, US farmers are being propped up by government welfare – a direct result of Trump’s hardline on its trading partners.
China looks set to play a key role in helping the New Zealand wool sector shift away from trading as a commodity supplier.
If you find a new consumer in a developed wine market, you are taking them from someone else, says Blank Canvas co-founder Sophie Parker-Thomson MW.
OPINION: Your old mate hears that at a recent China Business Summit, PM Christopher Luxon delivered a none-too-subtle "could try harder" report card on the red meat industry regarding its exports to China - particularly when compared to Australia.
The large 2025 harvest will exacerbate the wine industry's "lingering" supply from recent vintages, New Zealand Winegrowers Chief Executive Philip Gregan told attendees at Grape Days events around the country in June.
Thirty years ago, as a young sharemilker, former Waikato farmer Snow Chubb realised he was bucking a trend when he started planting trees to provide shade for his cows, but he knew the animals would appreciate what he was doing.
Virtual fencing and herding systems supplier, Halter is welcoming a decision by the Victorian Government to allow farmers in the state to use the technology.
DairyNZ’s latest Econ Tracker update shows most farms will still finish the season in a positive position, although the gap has narrowed compared with early season expectations.
New Zealand’s national lamb crop for the 2025–26 season is estimated at 19.66 million head, a lift of one percent (or 188,000 more lambs) on last season, according to Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) latest Lamb Crop report.
Farmers appear to be cautiously welcoming the Government’s plan to reform local government, according to Ag First chief executive, James Allen.
The Fonterra divestment capital return should provide “a tailwind to GDP growth” next year, according to a new ANZ NZ report, but it’s not “manna from heaven” for the economy.
President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imports into the US is doing good things for global trade, according…
Seen a giant cheese roll rolling along Southland’s roads?
