US removes reciprocal tariff on NZ beef
Red meat farmers and processors are welcoming a US Government announcement - removing its reciprocal tariffs on a range of food products, including New Zealand beef.
New Beef + Lamb NZ chair Kate Acland says it needs to keep fighting for sensible and practical policy settings.
She is B+LNZ’s first female chair and was voted in by the board shortly after its annual meeting in New Plymouth yesterday.
She replaces Andrew Morrison, who was voted out of the board by farmers this month.
Acland says discussions at yesterday’s AGM “underlined the need for deeper conversations with our farmers about some of the key issues we’re advocating on and why the board has taken the positions it has.”
Acland and her husband David own a range of businesses including Mt Somers Station, mid-Canterbury.
The couple have three children and employ 30 staff and run 30,000 stock units in a mixture of sheep, beef and deer, as well as an 850-cow dairy unit.
The Mt Somers Station property also includes a standalone honey operation with 500 hectares of native vegetation and beech forest supporting 400 hives that produce Manuka, Honeydew and Clover honeys.
Before moving to her husban family farm, she developed her own vineyard and winery (Sugar Loaf Wines), processing and export business in Marlborough.
Acland said she’s humbled to be appointed chair.
“This is an exciting opportunity to represent farmers and the sector I’m enormously passionate about,” she says.
“I’m personally optimistic about the future. New Zealand has a great history of innovating and adaptation, but right now farming is tough, and farmers are facing unprecedented challenges and change. I look forward to leading the organisation that helps farmers through that change.”
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.

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