Well-placed to weather conflicts
Shipping disruption caused by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea has so far not impacted fertiliser prices or supply on farm.
Ravensdown chief executive Greg Campbell doesn’t want the co-op to be labeled “a fertiliser business and a polluter”.
“If we are getting those messages, we have failed,” he told Rural News.
Instead, Campbell wants Ravensdown known as an agri service business “that happens to use products that protect the environment and the social license to operate”.
“We want to turn the conversation around -- from ‘polluters’ to ‘we understand and value what you do and we won’t sell products that will have negative outcomes’.”
Ravensdown, headquartered in Christchurch and turning 40 in August, was launched in 1977 by farmers fed up with being at the mercy of two commercial operators.
By the end of Ravensdown’s beginning, two of New Zealand’s largest companies would be delisted from the stock exchange – an unheard of precedent. By the end of 1977, a small band of far-sighted pioneers had wrested control of four fertiliser factories and nine stores from a commercial entity that had fought them tooth and nail.
The cooperative spirit of those early pioneers prevailed and Ravensdown was here to stay.
Today the co-op owns three manufacturing sites, 90 stores, joint venture spreading companies running 85 trucks and an aerial spreading business. An environmental consultancy business, set up there years ago, is the fastest growing unit within the company. Four services are offered: Overseer modeling, farm environment management plans, water quality testing and resource consent applications.
Campbell says shareholders are keen that the company is in discussion on their behalf and provides services, particularly in agronomy and science. It also collects farm data, from farming systems to outputs, on behalf of farmers “who are happy to be benchmarked against one another”.
“A farmer can look at any one paddock at any one time to see what’s going on, the likely production and whether he will have any potential environmental issue.”
“A lot of shareholders are quite happy about the challenge- how they are going against the other farmers; I haven’t met too many farmers who don’t want to help their fellow farmer. If all our farmers do well it’s good for NZ.
“When I talk to our founding shareholders, they tell us what they foresaw,” Campbell says.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is claiming “some real success” on the 12 policy priorities it placed before the Coalition Government.
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Fast-track Approvals Bill introduced by the Coalition Government to enable a fast-track decision-making process for infrastructure and development projects.
The latest report from ANZ isn’t good news for sheep farmers: lamb returns are forecast to remain low.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.