The ups and downs of 2016 – the year in review
Another year has almost passed us by – again – and it is time for the annual review of 2016 in the primary sector as seen by the Rural News editorial team.
The Hound notes that former Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) member Mark Patterson is now trying to use the same anti-Chinese sentiment the failed group used to oppose the takeover by Yili of Westland Milk.
Patterson these days is a little-known NZ First list MP and he’s employing the same scare tactics that MIE tried and miserably failed to stop the very successful merger of Silver Fern Farms with China-based Shanghai Maling a couple of years ago.
Patterson’s claims that the sale of Westland to Yili risks NZ losing control of its biggest industry – dairy – to overseas ownership is a bit of a stretch when around 85% of the NZ industry is still controlled by the farmer owned-co-op Fonterra!
Potatoes New Zealand and Garden to Table have partnered together to celebrate a versatile vegetable and the people behind it.
Mainland Poultry has confirmed new ownership of its vertically integrated agribusiness with Pacific Equity Partners Gateway (PEP Gateway) now joining current shareholders Navis.
The recently published State of the Industry -Tractors and Machinery 2025 from the Australian Tractor and Machinery Association (TMA), the equivalent of New Zealand’s TAMA, gives an interesting perspective of the industry.
Strong competition and tightening supply have seen wool reach its highest prices paid at auction since 2011.
The Government is funding a feasibility study to investigate what would be required for a successful farmer-led purchase of the McCain Foods' vegetable processing site in Hastings.
A young man just five years out of his Lincoln University degree already has his foot in the door of farm ownership, as equity manager of a large new dairy conversion now taking shape in Mid- Canterbury.

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