NZ agribusinesses urged to embrace China’s e-commerce and innovation boom
Keep up with innovation and e-commerce in China or risk losing market share. That was the message delivered at the China Business Summit in Auckland this month.
NZKGI chief executive Colin Bond has paid tribute to the contribution that departing Zespri CEO Dan Mathieson has made to the kiwifruit industry.
Mathieson recently announced that he's taking up a new position as president of Driscoll's - a huge California-based company that produces a range of berries. In 2017, it controlled roughly one third of the $6 billion berry market in the USA.
Driscoll's is a fourth-generation family business set up in the late 1980s by the Reiter and Driscoll families. The company also has a subsidiary called the Fresh Berry Company based in Hawke's Bay which was set up in 2016.
Mathieson has been at Zespri for 21 years, almost seven of those as CEO. He will remain at Zespri to oversee the 2024 harvest and start of the sales season and until a new CEO is appointed.
Bond says Mathieson has led the industry through a strong growth period as well as the last two challenging years.
"He's always had growers' best interests in mind and has worked very hard for the industry and can take a lot of credit for the strong position it is in now as one of the best global fruit brands in the world."
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
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Driven by a lifelong passion for animals, Amy Toughey's journey from juggling three jobs with full-time study to working on cutting-edge dairy research trials shows what happens when hard work meets opportunity - and she's only just getting started.