A Rural Vote Splitting Headache
OPINION: Farmers have felt increasingly disempowered and disregarded of recent decades. Larger farms and fewer owners have reduced the rural population.
Marnco managing director Mark Been says National’s plan has the intent right, but the risk is in its design.
As part of the election campaign, National this month announced that it would negotiate fertiliser security agreements with key supplier countries in a bid to reduce our exposure to volatile global fertiliser markets.
Marnco supplies farmers and rural retailers across both islands with imported nitrogen, phosphate and potash. It also operates in Australia.
“What has happened there is why we are speaking up now,” Been told Rural News.
This year the Australian Government set up a A$10 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility.
Been claims there was no visibility and no transparency in how it was set up.
“Access was limited to a select few, and nobody was told how they were chosen or why others were left out.
“Everyone else in the market is now competing against the Commonwealth balance sheet. The damage we have seen was caused by a taxpayer-backed facility that supports the incumbents and leaves everyone else carrying the full market risk.
“That is not security of supply. It concentrates supply,” he says.
Been points out that New Zealand already plans for fuel and energy security, and fertiliser belongs in the same category.
“Much of the nitrogen, phosphate and potash used on our farms comes across the water, and a disruption would hit every farmer.”
For New Zealand farmers, the question is what a security agreement with supplier countries protects, he says.
“If it protects every importer’s supply, farmers benefit.
“If it protects only the co-operatives, then in a disruption the market belongs to two players.”
Been adds that competition in NZ fertiliser is thin as it is.
“Independents are the reason many farmers have a second price to look at. Take them out when supply tightens and that second price disappears, at exactly the moment farmers need it most.”
Been isn’t arguing against National’s policy.
For him, it is an argument about how it gets built.
“It is far cheaper to get the design right at the start than to fix it after the first shortage, and Australia has shown how easily a well-meant facility can end up serving a narrow group.”
He has written to Agriculture Minister Todd McClay seeking equal access for every licenced bulk NZ fertiliser importer.
He also wants eligibility rules, and any list of participants made public and independent importers consulted in the design along with the two co-operatives.
“These are not big asks. They cost the taxpayer nothing and they keep the market honest.
“Farmers want fertiliser when it counts. That means supply that reaches every paddock, whoever brought it in, and a policy built with every importer in the room from day one. Getting that right now will matter a great deal more than getting the announcement right.”
