Potential UAE trade deal would boost red meat exports
The red meat sector is welcoming the start of trade negotiations between New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
News of plans to upgrade New Zealand’s free trade agreement with China should open trade doors for more timber exports to China.
The FTA would also give more employment in New Zealand, says the New Zealand Wood Council chair, Brian Stanley.
The Prime Minister, John Key, says New Zealand’s main aim in the China FTA upgrade is to reduce dairy quotas, but he also emphasised other improved trade prospects in China, including timber exports.
New Zealand dairy exports to China are presently worth $2.9 billion a year, while forest products are New Zealand’s second most important export to China, at $1.8 billion a year.
Stanley says the New Zealand negotiators will be looking at current non-tariff barriers for New Zealand timber exports to China.
“The Chinese timber industry has all sorts of government assistance against imports, and even when we are competing against other exporters there, such as the US and Canada, the Chinese regulations are stacked against us,” says Stanley.
“We’d also want more transparency in their phytosanitary rules.”
Stanley says the New Zealand industry would like to see the China FTA result in more production and work for processors in New Zealand.
“At the moment China takes more than two-thirds of our log exports, but it lags behind the United States, Australia and Japan for importing processed timber from New Zealand, such as sawn timber, panels and paper.”
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.