LIC ends year with $30.6m profit
Herd improvement company LIC has ended the 2024-25 financial year in a strong position - debt-free and almost quadrupling its net profit.
National Bank has been named New Zealand's leading agribusiness bank.
The inaugural CANSTAR Best Agribusiness Bank New Zealand award was presented to National Bank's managing director of commercial & agri Graham Turley by CANSTAR New Zealand national manager, Derek Bonnar.
National Bank was named winner ahead of four other agribusiness banks for overall value and the quality of the products and services it offers New Zealand's rural sector.
"It is a great honour for National Bank to be named Best Agribusiness Bank," says Turley.
"The award is testament to the commitment and hard work of our people. Their knowledge, experience and relationships in the rural sector has enabled us to provide a range of products and services that best meets the needs of rural businesses and rural people.
"Together, National Bank and ANZ are New Zealand's biggest rural lender and have the most extensive rural banking network.
"We are constantly looking at ways to grow the industry and support the people in it, such as our new $120 million start-up package for young farmers."
Strengths highlighted by the awards judges include customers' access to a force of 173 dedicated agribusiness managers plus a 24-hour agribusiness call centre and free farming seminars.
The sale of Fonterra’s global consumer and related businesses is expected to be completed within two months.
Fonterra is boosting its butter production capacity to meet growing demand.
For the most part, dairy farmers in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti and the Manawatu appear to have not been too badly affected by recent storms across the upper North Island.
South Island dairy production is up on last year despite an unusually wet, dull and stormy summer, says DairyNZ lower South Island regional manager Jared Stockman.
Following a side-by-side rolling into a gully, Safer Farms has issued a new Safety Alert.
Coming in at a year-end total at 3088 units, a rise of around 10% over the 2806 total for 2024, the signs are that the New Zealand farm machinery industry is turning the corner after a difficult couple of years.

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