Crazy
OPINION: Your canine crusader was truly impressed by the almost unanimous support given by politicians of all stripes in Parliament to the recent passing of legislation for the NZ/EU free trade deal.
Labour spokesman on primary industries, Damien O’Connor says while the dairy developments at Taupo are impressive it’s important the Crown is not exposed to major debt such as that of Solid Energy.
However O’Connor says he’s impressed with Landcorp’s focus on low cost production systems.
He says the dairy industry in general at present is lacking an overall strategic direction and individuals are making potentially risky decisions.
“There are some players in the industry who are intensifying their systems while others are more cautions and probably winding back their production,” he says.
“That leads to the question of processing capacity in terms of the wider industry and I don’t think anyone would want to see the dairy end up with a meat industry situation where we have excess capacity.”
He notes a number of foreign investors are becoming involved in the dairy processing industry to vertically integrate their systems.
There is real risk of over-capacity becoming a reality in the dairy sector, he says. While some commentators are encouraging farmers to increase production, farmers who don’t focus on profit will go broke and additional production alone doesn’t develop a better outcome.
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.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has informed staff it will cut 391 jobs following a consultation period.