DairyNZ chair wants cross-party deal
New DairyNZ chair Tracy Brown says bipartisan agreement among political parties on emissions pricing and freshwater regulations would greatly help farmers.
DairyNZ says the decision to allow an extra 500 international workers to help on dairy farms will help with the present shortage - estimated to be 4,000 workers.
Chief executive Tim Mackle says his organisation has been working hard to ensure the Government understands the huge pressure farmers are under due to workforce shortages.
"We have pushed for 1,500 international dairy workers to be allowed into the country in time for the 2022 dairy season on 1 June," he told Rural News. "We made it clear to government that the 300 dairy border class workers previously approved was nowhere near enough to meet the demands on-farm."
Federated Farmers' Chris Lewis says while the announcement is good, he warns that getting labour from overseas is no silver bullet for the industry. He says recruiting staff from overseas is not the first cab off the rank.
"There is a lot of paperwork back and forth to get staff from overseas and it can take between four and six weeks for Filipinos to get a medical in their country," he told Rural News. "It's the same in a lot of other countries, including NZ. You may spend between $70k and $80k to get a worker. For many farmers it's the route of desperation."
Lewis says the other challenge in recruiting Filipino workers is the attractive options across the ditch in Australia. He points to the fact that many of the wives and partners of Filipino workers are employed in the healthcare sector and the pay is much better in Australia.
He says while the cash may be better in Australia the actual working conditions on farms in NZ are better and he says we need to do more to highlight these.
ANZ says the latest cut to its floating rates will be welcome news to many of its business and agri customers still feeling the effects of high inflation and interest rates.
Fonterra has introduced a new UHT bakery cream for its booming foodservice business in China.
Auckland manufacturer and distributor of colostrum-based supplements, New Image International, celebrated its 40th anniversary this month.
LIC farmers are set to benefit from a genetics collaboration with US company, Sexing Technologies (ST).
"It was awesome to see not only where our milk goes but to find out more about the range of ways it's used."
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