Editorial: NZ's great China move
OPINION: The New Zealand red meat sector, with support from the Government, has upped the ante to retain and expand its niche in the valuable Chinese market - and the signs are looking positive.
New Zealand red meat processors and exporters are the latest group to lend their support to the ‘Kiwis Backing Farmers’ campaign.
They claim the only sustainable way for the Government to deliver better outcomes for the environment and the economy is to work with farmers.
The campaign, which has been spearheaded by Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) and rural advocacy group 50 Shades of Green, aims to highlight the cumulative effects of successive policies, such as the wholesale conversion of productive sheep and beef farms into carbon farms, on rural communities.
Meat Industry Association (MIA) chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says New Zealand’s sheep and beef farmers are among the most carbon efficient and environmentally sustainable producers of red meat in the world.
“However, successive waves of new regulation in areas such as freshwater, biodiversity and carbon farming are putting the sheep and beef farmers’ status as champions for the environment at risk,” says Karapeeva.
She says many of the regulations being foisted upon farmers would be better aligned with on-farm practice and are collectively adding unnecessary costs to farmers at a point when inflation and volatile global markets are putting their operations under extreme pressure.
She adds that the meat processing sector is also concerned by the lack of limits on fossil fuel emitters offsetting their emissions by planting trees on productive land.
“This risks pushing more land into carbon forestry, which will have long-term consequences for the viability of rural communities and the New Zealand economy as a whole,” Karapeeva says.
“We all have a deep interest in creating a cleaner, greener environment and a thriving economy, which is why we’re calling on the Government to work with sheep and beef farmers to achieve this.
“As it stands, the red meat sector generates almost $12 billion in earnings from exports to more than 100 countries and employs 92,000 people, and by working together we can grow this in a sustainable way.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the relationship between New Zealand and the US will remain strong and enduring irrespective of changing administrations.
More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) says securing more China label registrations and developing its own nutritional manufacturing capability are high on its agenda.
Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.
As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.
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