Elders mum on PGW
Australian rural services company Elders has downplayed media speculation it is raising funds for a buyout of New Zealand’s largest agricultural services company PGG Wrightson (PGW).
Longtime Elders New Zealand managing director Stu Chapman will later this month leave the business he started.
Following the Carr Group’s acquisition last August of Elders New Zealand – recently rebranded as Carrfields – Chapman, once a shareholder in the Elders agribusiness, agreed to continue in the MD role during the sale and management handover.
He will finish at Elders on August 14 but remain a director of Elders Primary Wool, comprising NZ Yarn, Wool Exports NZ and Wool Marketing Enterprises (Just Shorn). He will also remain a director of Elders International NZ Live Export, a joint venture with Elders Australia.
Chapman has spent 21 years with Elders NZ, growing the business into a market leader particularly in livestock and wool.
A verbal stoush has broken out between Federated Farmers and a new group that claims to be fighting against cheaper imports that undermine NZ farmers.
According to the latest ANZ Agri Focus report, energy-intensive and domestically-focused sectors currently bear the brunt of rising fuel, fertiliser and freight costs.
Having gone through a troublesome “divorce” from its association and part ownership of AGCO, Indian manufacturer TAFE is said to be determined to be seen as a modern business rather than just another tractor maker from the developing world.
Two long-standing New Zealand agricultural businesses are coming together to strengthen innovation, local manufacturing capability, and access to essential farm inputs for farmers across the country.
A new farmer-led programme aimed at bringing young people into dairy farming is under way in Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
The Government has announced changes to stock exclusion regulations which it claims will cut unnecessary costs and inflexible rules while maintaining environmental protections.

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