Editorial: Keep FTAs coming
OPINION: The dairy industry will be a major beneficiary of a new free trade deal between NZ and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).
OPINION: The sudden resignation of Jacinda Ardern and installation of Chris Hipkins as Prime Minister will see many in the farming sector looking to the old maxim about 'putting lipstick on a pig' - which means making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product in a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings.
It is fair to say farmers have not been overly enamoured with what the Government has imposed or proposed on the rural sector over the past five years.
What if any difference will Hipkins make to Labour's policy agenda?
Farmers have long been critical of many of the Government's proposed changes and the impact that these will have on the agricultural sector and rural communities.
According to Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard, rural leaders have had nothing to do with the new Prime Minister or his new deputy, Carmel Sepuloni - with neither of them being part of the government team meetings with food and fibre leaders. This could be a good thing and allow for a proper reset of the agriculture sector's fraught relationship with the current government. Or will it just be more of the same?
As Hoggard says, "It (the Government) needs a complete re-look on a whole range of issues."
Beef+Lamb NZ chair Andrew Morrison rightly points out that Hipkins needs to understand the huge amount of financial pressure that farmers are facing when he and his cabinet review what projects should be scrapped or revisited.
The new PM has already made mutterings that change has happened too fast, but it will be a case of waiting and seeing if these words translate into anything in terms of actions.
It should not be forgotten that Hipkins has been deeply involved with the policy direction of the Government from the beginning, as both a senior minister and member of the kitchen cabinet under Ardern.
The rural sector should not hold its breath, rather it can probably expect little more than cosmetic changes in the direction of government policy.
Hence the old saying: 'You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig!'
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the relationship between New Zealand and the US will remain strong and enduring irrespective of changing administrations.
More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) says securing more China label registrations and developing its own nutritional manufacturing capability are high on its agenda.
Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.
As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.
Livestock can be bred for lower methane emissions while also improving productivity at a rate greater than what the industry is currently achieving, research has shown.
OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…
OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…