Fieldays calls for entries to 2026 Innovation Awards
Entries have opened for the 2026 Fieldays Innovation Awards.
Ireland's Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, led a contingent of Irish businesses to the Fieldays last week.
Among their products were innovative agritechnology and machinery tested in the challenging Irish climate. Passing this test makes the equipment ideal for New Zealand conditions, Humphreys said.
Ireland see NZ as a key element in its current and future export strategy via direct sales and partnering with NZ companies.
“Many see significant potential for long term relationships because of the similarity of the two countries’ agricultural bases. This enables Irish agri solutions to seamlessly and successfully integrate with NZ agricultural landscapes,” she told Rural News.
The two countries share a similar outlook and values which set the foundation for a growing commercial relationship
“I see this going from strength to strength,” she says.
Humphreys said the embassies set up recently by both countries will help deepen the relationship.
Ireland and New Zealand have much in common culturally, and many opportunities exist to deep and strengthen that relationship with the advent of Brexit.
“Because of this obviously NZ is going to be looking for an EU base and what better place to choose than Ireland?” Humphreys asks.
Agrisea NZ has appointed Craig Hudson as it's new chief growth officer.
State farmer Landcorp, trading as Pamu, is a forecasting a full-year net profit of around $100 million.
Tony Aitken, chief executive of Ruralco, has been awarded the Excellence in Business Leadership Award at the ANZ Business of the Year Awards.
Global trade has been thrown into another bout of uncertainty following the overnight ruling by US Supreme Court, striking down President Donald Trump's decision to impose additional tariffs on trading partners.
Controls on the movement of fruit and vegetables in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill have been lifted.
Fonterra farmer shareholders and unit holders are in line for another payment in April.

OPINION: Here w go: the election date is set for November 7 and the politicians are out of the gate…
OPINION: ECan data was released a few days ago showing Canterbury farmers have made “giant strides on environmental performance”.