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MAKING more value added products will provide greater confidence to farmers, according to Federated Farmers vice president Dr William Rolleston.
Speaking this week at the World Farmers Organisation conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Rolleston urged agricultural stakeholders must work together to boost value added returns.
He says increasing the value of products can provide farmers with confidence about their future.
"Developing new products tailored to specific market preferences and needs, provides opportunity for increased farm gate returns, without any increase in volume.
"It is here where we need a close collaboration between farmers, scientists, processors and marketers to communicate market requirements into the science pipeline.
"As farmers, we can sometimes feel disconnected from the end market, yet it is the end market we need to understand most because that determines not just how we farm, but what we farm."
Rolleston suggests we can increase the value of our products by improving our current products or we can create new and novel food products like sweet tasting kiwiberries - products that stimulate demand and maximise returns through premium prices in domestic and international markets.
"So we need scientists to be thinking outside the square as well. Research can take some direction from its users and that is important but as Henry Ford famously said, "If I listened to my customers I would have built a faster horse."
According to the latest Federated Farmers banking survey, farmers are more satisfied with their bank and less under pressure, however, the sector is well short of confidence levels seen last decade.
OPINION: Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ for ‘The Twelve Pests of Christmas’ to highlight the most troublesome farm pests – a serious issue that needs some urgent attention from the Beehive.
Farmers are welcoming the announcement of two new bills to replace the under-fire Resource Management Act.
The Government has announced it will immediately roll over all resource consents for two years, with legislation expected to pass under urgency as early as this week.
Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping "The Twelve Days of Christmas" for "The Twelve Pests of Christmas" in an effort to highlight the most troublesome farm pests.
Legal controls on the movement of fruits and vegetables are now in place in Auckland’s Mt Roskill suburb, says Biosecurity New Zealand Commissioner North Mike Inglis.
Arable growers worried that some weeds in their crops may have developed herbicide resistance can now get the suspected plants tested for free.
Fruit growers and exporters are worried following the discovery of a male Queensland fruit fly in Auckland this week.
Dairy prices have jumped in the overnight Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction, breaking a five-month negative streak.
Alliance Group chief executive Willie Wiese is leaving the company after three years in the role.
A booklet produced in 2025 by the Rotoiti 15 trust, Department of Conservation and Scion – now part of the Bioeconomy Science Institute – aims to help people identify insect pests and diseases.
OPINION: The release of the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill to replace the Resource Management Act is a red-letter day…
OPINION: Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ for ‘The Twelve Pests of Christmas’ to…
