Wool Impact Signs Partnership With ASB To Back Strong Wool Growth
Wool Impact and ASB have signed a new partnership with the bank set to provide financial backing to support the revitalisation of New Zealand's strong wool industry.
The 2018 grape harvest has jumped on the 2017 level, according to the ASB Bank.
In its Commodities Weekly report, it says harvest was around 23,000 tonnes or 6% larger than last year’s.
A 4% lift in yield accounted for most of the lift in harvest. Regionally, the Waipara Valley has bounced back from last year’s difficulties, with the harvest up by over a third. I
In addition, the Hawkes Bay, Central Otago and Wairarapa all saw harvests jump by over 20%. Of the main wine regions, only Gisborne saw its harvest dip (by 20%), while Marlborough posted a modest 4% lift.
ASB says the larger harvest will support export volume and value growth this year.
In the year to May 2018, export values lifted 3.3% compared to the year earlier, mainly due to higher export volumes, with prices lifting just a touch.
“However, we expect this year’s larger harvest to put some downward pressure on prices. Also, given wine’s relative luxury status it is more likely to get see global demand soften in the fallout from trade tensions,’ the bank says.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.

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