China’s new beef tariffs expected to favour New Zealand exporters
Additional tariffs introduced by the Chinese Government last month on beef imports should favour New Zealand farmers and exporters.
Your old mate reckons former Silver Fern Farms sales manager Grant Howie has done a poacher-turned-gamekeeper conversion since he left the meat company to do business on his own account.
Howie in his former life was the chief salesman of red meat products on behalf of SFF. However, earlier this year the former meat man took over the The Craft Meat Company in Dunedin and has recently hit the supermarket shelves with a plant-based ‘No Meat Mince’’ with ingredients such as mushrooms, tomatoes, almonds, coconut oil and soy protein. Howie, a 30-year food industry veteran, said the rise of alternative proteins was arguably the biggest trend in Western food. This old mutt wonders what Howie’s ex-colleagues and former farmer suppliers at SFF think of his new venture.
As New Zealand marks the United Nations’ International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 (IYWF 2026), industry leaders are challenging the misconception that women only support farming.
Fonterra’s impending exit from the Australian dairy industry is a major event but the story doesn’t change too much for farmers.
Expect greater collaboration between Massey University’s school of Agriculture and Environment and Ireland’s leading agriculture university, the University College of Dublin (UCD), in the future.
A partnership between Torere Macadamias Ltd and the Riddet Institute aims to unlock value from macadamia nuts while growing the next generation of Māori agribusiness researchers.
A new partnership between Dairy Women’s Network (DWN) and NZAgbiz aims to make evidence-based calf rearing practices accessible to all farm teams.
Despite some trying circumstances recently, the cherry season looks set to emerge on top of things.

OPINION: Here w go: the election date is set for November 7 and the politicians are out of the gate…
OPINION: ECan data was released a few days ago showing Canterbury farmers have made “giant strides on environmental performance”.