Red meat rebound
The red meat sector is poised for a strong rebound this season, with export receipts forecast to top $10 billion and farm profitability to almost double.
Global demand is still strong for NZ protein and the outlook for meat is good despite the present turmoil in some key markets - especially China.
That's the view of Meat Industry Association (MIA) chief executive, Sirma Karapeeva, who says while she may be overly positive, she believes the present downturn will sort itself out in due course. But she says there remains a question as to how long this will take.
"How long in these doldrums? I can't speculate. I hope this will happen sooner rather than later, but the big challenge is what happens in China," she told Rural News.
Karapeeva notes that historically China has been a huge driver for primary products globally and the Chinese domestic economy seems to be at the heart of their problems which has led to a slowdown in demand and a drop in price.
She says the sheepmeat situation in China is a little bit different to beef for several reasons.
"Firstly, there are large number of countries exporting to China, so it is really a very competitive space and we are competing with volume exporters like Brazil, Australia, and a number of other South American countries. So that market is very competitive," she says.
Karapeeva says China itself is a big player domestically. The statistics in 2022 show that China had 194 million sheep.
She says because of all these factors, it's hard to get an accurate handle on where the sheepmeat situation will land in China and whether the same high prices of previous years will return.
There has been talk that the higher priced lamb cuts have been doing well in China at the expense of the 'commodity' lamb.
But Karapeeva points out that the so-called 'commodity lamb' still plays a big part in Chinese cuisine in the form of their 'hot pots'.
A company growing and processing seaweed with known methane-busting properties at a facility in Bluff is expanding internationally but New Zealand cattle farmers won't be getting the product anytime soon.
Through its new partnership with New Zealand Landcare Trust, Fonterra has committed to funding ten $25,000 grants for wetland restoration in communities across the country.
The chair of the Dairy Environmental Leaders (DEL) says the country's dairy farmers are at the forefront of environmental management.
On the edge of the hot, dry Takapau plains, Norm and Del Atkins have cultivated a small but exceptional herd of 60 Holstein Friesian cows within their mixed breed herd of 360 dairy cows.
The DairyNZ board and management are currently trying to determine whether, and to what degree, their farmer levy payers will support any increase in their levy contributions.
Milk production is up nationally, despite drought conditions beginning to bite in some districts, according to the latest update from Fonterra.
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