Bakers prefer butter, helping prices soar
Consumers around the world are willing to pay more for products containing dairy and this is driving demand for butter and cream, says Fonterra.
Even with the ANZAC relationship dating back 100 years, it seems the lack of commitment by our Australian cousins cost New Zealand's dairy sector more meaningful gains from the recently concluded TPP negotiations.
NZ special agriculture envoy Mike Petersen told Rural News that if Australia had stood with New Zealand there would have been a much better dairy deal.
"Unfortunately the Aussies did not stand with us over dairy in Atlanta (where the TPP was concluded earlier this month). Their focus was on sugar, biologics and other matters," Petersen says. "If we'd had the Aussies onside, we'd have got a better dairy deal, but it was too hard with just us (NZ) against the combined and heavily protected dairy sectors of the US, Canada and Japan."
Despite the less-than-ideal outcome for dairy, Petersen, in Atlanta with the rest of the NZ negotiating team, believes the TPP has delivered an "outstanding" result for the NZ primary sector.
"It is an outstanding deal for New Zealand. We have basically gained free trade access for the majority of our primary sector products – with the exception of dairy and some beef – to 11 new markets with a population of 800 million or 40% of the world's trade.
"We now have access to 11 new markets tariff-free for fruit and veg, sheepmeat, seafood, wine and forestry, and the next best thing for beef."
Petersen says critics of the deal fail to recognise that the TPP has given NZ the equivalent of free trade deals with countries we could never have expected to sign up to bi-lateral deals.
"The US, Japan, Canada and Mexico would not be interested in doing a bilateral with a tiny country of 4.6 million people. They would ask, 'what's in it for us?', and they'd be right," he explains. "Through the TPP process we now have free access for all our primary products—with the exception of dairy and some beef – into these four markets and seven others."
Meanwhile, Petersen says it would have been untenable and economically stupid for NZ to walk away from the TPP.
"The TPP would have gone ahead without us – it would have been 11 countries instead of 12," he says.
Farmers appear to be backing the Government's recent Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms announcement.
For the first time, all the big names in agricultural drone technology are being brought together under one marquee at the National Fieldays.
Fonterra has announced an improved third quarter performance – with a profit after tax of $1.15 billion, up $119 million on the same period last year.
The Fieldays Innovation Awards competition has attracted a diverse and impressive array of innovations from across the primary industries, highlighting the growing importance of technology shaping the future of farming.
Coming to the fore following the carnage of Cyclone Gabrielle, Starlink became well known for providing internet access even in NZ's most inaccessible places.
From this winter farmers will have a greater choice of feed types and blend options than ever before, thanks to Farmlands' purchase of animal nutrition company SealesWinslow.
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