Blank Canvas rides white wine wave as New Zealand wine sales soar in China
If you find a new consumer in a developed wine market, you are taking them from someone else, says Blank Canvas co-founder Sophie Parker-Thomson MW.
Stubbornly high farm input costs, a slow Chinese recovery and a flood of Australian lamb onto the global market are the main factors contributing to the tough times being faced by NZ's sheep farmers.
This is borne out in the latest Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) Mid-Season Update, which confirms that farmers will have to continue to dig deep to stem what looks like widespread cash losses in the sheep and beef sector for the 23/24 financial year.
It says the outlook for the season has worsened significantly since their forecasts in October, because of Chinese and Australian factors, with the latter's exports of red meat bigger than originally forecast.
The report says an excellent lamb crop last spring has meant there are more lambs to sell, but this cannot compensate for lower per head prices and unavoidably high costs. Farm profits, it says, are forecast to be down 54% to an average of $62,600 per farm - a 67% fall in farm profit from the 2021-22 year. This is the lowest profit level since the 1980s and the Global Financial Crisis.
Sam McIvor, B+LNZ chief executive, says farmers are feeling it with many having already worked hard on cutting costs. He adds that all the indications are they're leaving no stone unturned to find additional savings - especially farmers with relatively high debt levels.
"Certain farm classes, such as high country, hard hill country, and South Island hill country, are hardest hit with profitability due to their heavier reliance on sheep revenue. The East Coast region, still recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle and ongoing wet weather setbacks in 2023, is projected to have the lowest regional profitability."
But the report notes that it's not all bad with beef holding up much better, driven by significant demand out of the US as it rebuilds its herd, post-drought. All beef is forecast to average $5.15 per kgCW for the season, which is 2.9% down on last year, but 2% higher than the five-year average.
Demand for lamb in Europe and the US has also been strong and this is expected to continue for the rest of the season.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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