Chinese strategy
OPINION: Fonterra may have sold its dairy farms in China but the appetite for collaboration with the country remains strong.
Determined to hobble the one industry that propped the economy up during recent trying times, Jacinda Ardern and James Shaw ignored the farm-level option put to them by industry representatives (in the form of the tepid He Waka Eke Noa proposal). What they've come up with looks like a virtue signalling exercise, designed to make the PM look good on the world stage, while throwing farmers under the bus.
The Feds aren't happy, and even the 'we must be at the table' mob at DairyNZ and Beef+Lamb expressed concerns at what the Government has settled on.
Farmers will be hit hard by this, and must now be wondering if their representatives got it wrong in the negotiation: is there any point being at the table, playing nice, if the other party isn't listening?
