Recently, the Meat Industry Association exhibited at the 7th China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

OPINION: The New Zealand red meat sector, with support from the Government, has upped the ante to retain and expand its niche in the valuable Chinese market - and the signs are looking positive.

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of transparency by the Crown-owned entity - spurred by its refusal to release information under the OIA about its conduct around Cyclone Gabrielle and the Hawke's Bay flooding.

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the banking structure massively favours lending to housing, at the expense of the productive sectors, particularly agribusiness.

Smugness

OPINION: Just as they did in 2016 when Trump beat Clinton, liberals in the media are crying "how did this happen?"

Snail mail

OPINION: About as productive as a politician's taxpayer-funded trip to Hawaii, as cost-effective as an OSPRI IT project, and as smart as the power-company pylon worker, the Hound gives you the NZ Post business strategy:

Leaky waka

OPINION: Was the ASB Economic Weekly throwing shade on Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr when reporting on his speech in Washington recently?

Know-it-alls

OPINION: A reader recently had a shot at the various armchair critics that she judged to be more than a bit preachy, telling sheep farmers how they "must learn" and "embrace change" and various other platitudes that armchair critics bandy about on LinkedIn and on the speaker circuit in 'NZ…

Mixed legacy

OPINION: You're never as good as when you're dead, and with due respect to Theo Spierings' family, the Hound can't let the death of the former Fonterra CEO pass without mentioning the parlous state he left Fonterra in when he exited in 2018 - having pocketed well north of $30…

Dead in the water

OPINION: In a victory for common sense over virtue signalling, David Parker's National Policy Statement (NPS) work on freshwater is now dead in the water.

New Zealand is suited to large-scale hemp cultivation to deliver large returns to the regions.

OPINION: Local Government is badly underfunded. Economic circumstances demand a new approach to funding the constant burden of infrastructure delivery and renewal. The costs can be eased for rural ratepayers.

Concern about fatigue impacts during a busy season prompted Rural Contractors New Zealand to launch a campaign about the risks. Chief executive Andrew Olsen explains.

OPINION: The Reserve Bank’s rate cut is great news, albeit a bit late, but your old mate agrees with Act leader David Seymour that the cut – with more to come – is a “multi-billion dollar mea culpa” by the RBNZ.

OPINION: While the Government’s Fast Track bill is copping it from all the usual suspects – opposition parties, greenies, unions and various other ‘interested parties’ who cream it in fees by forcing development through endless ‘consultation’ – your old mate reckons progress on key elements like housing, infrastructure, mining &…

OPINION: In a to the 1990s, our old mates at Greenpeace continued their crusade against affordable food by abseiling down the side of Fonterra’s Te Rapa factory and unfurling a big banner.

OPINION: Big surprise, Fish & Game find themselves at odds with farmers, once again, and at risk of costing their members the one thing they value above all else – access across private land to fishable lakes and rivers.

OPINION: New Zealanders have a love affair with property investment. After securing a family home, buying a rental property is traditionally seen as a safe way to build wealth over the long term.

OPINION: Rural New Zealand has been taking some very big hits of late. The latest of these, the closure of Alliance’s Smithfield plant at Timaru, is yet another blow for the heartland – the engine room of the economy.

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The Hound

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…

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