Luxon Praises NZ Red Meat Industry's Global Success
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the red meat sector is doing an excellent job promoting our pasture-fed system around the globe.
Meat and edible offal exports fell 15% ($235 million) in the September quarter, Statistics New Zealand says.
The fall in values, after adjusting for seasonal effects, was due to a 13% fall in the quantities exported.
"We are seeing the effect of lower prices after the record meat season last year," international statistics senior manager Jason Attewell says. "In the year ended September, the actual value of meat exports has fallen by around 7%, but quantities were little changed, down 1%."
The fall in meat exports was a leading factor in a drop in total goods exports from the June 2016 quarter. Overall, seasonally adjusted quarterly goods exports fell by 4.8 percent ($605 million).
Other key movements in the September 2016 quarter included a fall in the value of fruit exports, down 5.8% ($40 million) to $644 million, and a rise in the value of forestry products, up 4.1% ($43 million) to $1.1 billion.
Exports of milk powder, butter, and cheese were little changed in the September 2016 quarter.
The seasonally adjusted value of goods imports rose 2.2%, led by a rise in capital goods.
The seasonally adjusted quarterly trade deficit was $1.1 billion, equivalent to 9.5% of exports.
This release focuses on our goods trade. For the year ended June 2016, goods made up 70% of total exports, and 74% of total imports. Goods and Services Trade by Country: Year ended September 2016 will be available on 2 December 2016.
Oamaru-based livestock handling specialist Te Pari has bought Combi Clamp, the New Zealand manufacturer of Combi Clamp manual sheep handlers.
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has admitted that a scheme bringing workers from Pacific nations to work on orchards has become too hard to navigate but says changes are coming.
A new app designed in New Zealand aims to help sheep, beef and deer farmers capture, analyse and use body condition score data more effectively.
Canterbury farmer Andy Macfarlane has been appointed to the board of AgriZeroNZ, the public-private partnership designed to accelerate the development and deployment of emissions reduction tools for New Zealand farmers.
For over 50 years Mel Ewers has been supporting the apple sector navigate through compliance and quality assurance issues.
The apple sector is enjoying a bumper harvest season.

A fair question has been raised about how member-funded organisations should conduct themselves when taking a public position on any…
OPINION: It really is getting harder to lampoon government bureaucrats when they do such a good job of it themselves.…