Maori-owned orchards bounce back from cyclone damage
A large Māori-owned kiwifruit business that was badly damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle has bounced back with a vengeance.
Damien O'Connor admits his six years in office were incredibly challenging, with Covid, droughts, floods, storms, M. bovis and volcanic eruptions to name a few.
He told Rural News that dealing with these issues had been very time consuming, which as a result, meant less time for things such as consultation and collaboration. But he says despite all the challenges thrown at the primary sector, it still managed to increase exports by 50%.
"Something I am very proud of and something that has largely gone unrecognised."
O'Connor claims that in terms of the primary sector, Labour packed a lot into its six years in office. He says four new free trade agreements were negotiated and a further three were upgraded and now the vast majority of NZ's trade is covered by formal legal structures.
He believes that almost eradicating M. bovis was a major achievement that meant the whole pastoral sector avoided significant consequences.
O'Connor concedes that, in terms of regulations, there were some "technical mistakes", but claims these were "quickly rectified". He says it's always a challenge dealing with other people in partnership, in a formal commercial arrangement or in government and mistakes do happen.
"What Labour can claim is that it was doing the right things for the right reasons," he says.
In his last days as a minister after the election, O'Connor represented NZ at a full meeting of the CPTTP in the United States. This meeting was significant because it was the first meeting that the UK attended as a full member of the group. He says NZ strongly supported Britain's membership of the CPTTP and says this is significant for NZ as it means that a European country is now connected to the Asia Pacific region.
Now that he's back in opposition, O'Connor says he has plenty to do, including work on his own place and giving some help on the family farm.
After 20 years of milking cows, Northland farmer Greg Collins is ready to step into the governance side of dairy.
For some Canterbury teenagers, their career is being shaped by hands-on experience in a sector they are passionate about - dairy farming.
Dairy farmers will be paying a new levy rate of 4.5c/kgMS - an extra 0.9c/kgMS - to industry-good body DairyNZ from June 1 this year.
The 'atmospheric river' of rain that swept down the country last week almost completely avoided one of the worst drought-affected regions in the country – coastal Taranaki.
Much-needed rain finally arrived in Northland, giving many farmers breathing space to get themselves back on track for next season.
Despite the turmoil in global markets, Fonterra is continuing with a dual track process to divest its multi-billion dollars consumer businesses.
OPINION: In the same way that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, economists sometimes get it right.
OPINION: The proposed RMA reforms took a while to drop but were well signaled after the election.