Biosecurity tops priorities for agribusiness leaders - report
Biosecurity remains the top priority for agribusiness leaders, according to KPMG’s 2025 Agribusiness Agenda released last week.
The key word is "complacency", a word somewhat akin to "she'll be right".
The report makes it clear that the world, like our sevens rugby team, has caught up with us and in some cases has overtaken us.
We have often joked and laughed about Irish and French farmers living the life of Riley on EU subsidies while we perform better. Now the joke's on us, as report author Ian Proudfoot points out: "Gallic passion has come into play and they -- not us -- are connecting more effectively with customers".
The report rightly challenges the governance of our primary industry organisations, with board members coming on via the old boy or girl networks. Proudfoot's model of a future thinking, highly skilled board to run organisations and a representative body to have oversight is good.
However, the latter needs to be more pitbull terrier than lapdog which is, sadly, the case of the Fonterra Shareholders' Council: good idea, dreadful result.
Representative scrutiny has to be seriously independent and not there to curry favour. Governance in some farmer organisations is pretty average and the boundary between governance and management is often blurred or overstepped.
The report highlights what Landcorp is doing and shows the SOE is a role model for how companies should act in turbulent, disruptive times and focus on adding value.
Making depressing reading is the dumbness of the bureaucracy in its management of science funding. It's a longstanding issue which needs urgent ministerial intervention.
Scientists, and the primary sector as a whole, have every reason to feel aggrieved at the overheads being stolen from good science money because of convoluted bureaucratic bidding processes.
KPMG and Ian Proudfoot, in particular, are to be congratulated for showing real leadership and insight into the future NZ is facing; they tell it as it is.
If primary sector organisations, and New Zealanders as a whole, don't buy into what KPMG is saying, we can only blame ourselves for any resulting mess.
