Feds support live animal exports
Federated Farmers have reiterated their support for the coalition Government to abolish the present ban on the live export of animals.
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O'Connor has issued a warning about the negative impacts on NZ resulting from the Russian/Ukraine conflict.
O'Connor says it will have a massive flow-on effect, the consequences of which we still don't fully understand. He says Russia, like NZ, is a big exporter of food and that country's inability to produce the food it normally does will impact on international food markets.
"It might see a short-term uplift in prices, but NZ won't gain anything long term from this conflict and the kind of disruption that we will see is harmful to international trade and relations," he told Rural News. "The impact on costs across the globe - through supply chain disruption and shortage of raw materials - means that we are in for some volatile times."
O'Connor adds that the latest outbreak of Covid in China is also a worry given that it is our single biggest market. There are reports of ports being closed and this is likely to cause disruption to NZ exports.
He says the other consequence of the Russia/Ukraine conflict and the possible short-term upsurge in export prices is the impact this may have on food prices in NZ. Prices in NZ are closely linked to international prices and there are fears that some food prices to consumers may rise further.
O'Connor admits this is an issue.
"It's a challenge for all of us in the food procuction sector that all New Zealanders have access to affordable food that is one of our primary responsibilities even at time of record returns.
"We can't have NZ going hungry when the vast majority of food we produce is sent off shore. Everyone is going to have to exercise social responsibility and work creatively and innovatively to deal with this issue."
EU FTA Still Months Away
On his recent overseas trip, Damien O'Connor had talks with EU politicians and officials to try and breathe some oxygen into the FTA currently being negotiated.
However, progress to date has been slow - compared with the speedy resolution of the UK/NZ FTA.
Internal EU politics is complicated and while the trade talks are seen as important, things such as the French elections and more especially the Russian/Ukraine conflict are distracting factors for the talks.
It seems that a deal will not be agreed to anytime soom with O'Connor conceding it will be the latter part of the year before any progress will be seen. He notes that both sides are reluctant to put a deadline on when a deal may be reached. However, he still remains optimistic that agreement can be reached on some of the harder issues such as agriculture.
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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