Rabobank 2026 Outlook: Geopolitics shapes global agriculture
The global agricultural landscape has entered a new phase where geopolitics – not only traditional market forces – will dictate agricultural trade flows, prices, and production decisions.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander congratulated winners in Rabobank’s FoodBytes! Competition in Sydney last week.
A New Zealand company Knewe Biosystems Ltd was among finalists who pitched their company to potential investors at the Rabobank Food 2 Fork Summit in Sydney last week.
Knewe Biosystems is developing an animal prebiotics product which it says meets critical mineral nutrition needs and also reduces the volume of waste to the environment, both because they cause animals to use their feed more efficiently.
The winner of the event was Australian company Sprout Kitchens which provides a platform for cafe’s and restaurants to rent out their unused kitchen space, outside of normal trading hours.
AgriWebb was the people’s choice winner. AgriWebb is a software company focused on “disrupting antiquated practices in livestock production”.
Their products “enable simplified on-farm, real-time data collection and apply analysis to improve management decision-making, enterprise efficiency, bench-marking and food security transparency, while integrating the farmer across horizontal and vertical supply chains”.
The Government is set to announce two new acts to replace the contentious Resource Management Act (RMA) with the Prime Minister hinting that consents required by farmers could reduce by 46%.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.
Undoubtedly the doyen of rural culture, always with a wry smile, our favourite ginger ninja, Te Radar, in conjunction with his wife Ruth Spencer, has recently released an enchanting, yet educational read centred around rural New Zealand in one hundred objects.
Farmers are being urged to keep on top of measures to control Cysticerus ovis - or sheep measles - following a spike in infection rates.
The avocado industry is facing an extremely challenging season with all parts of the supply chain, especially growers, being warned to prepare for any eventuality.

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