Wednesday, 24 March 2021 15:00

Not so sweet

Written by  The Hound
Not so sweet

Your canine crusader picked up on a recent statement from Agriculture O'Connor claiming how wonderfully the country's honey sector is doing.

According to O'Connor's highly spun press statement, everything is hunky dory for the country's honey industry.

However, the reality is somewhat different with NZ's honey producers saying O'Connor's sunny claims about the sector "have no relevance to the current situation".

It seems unless they are producing manuka honey, it is very tough going.

This can be seen in wholesale prices for table-grade clover honey at $3-$/kg, while production costs are around $6-$8/kg.

Even O'Connor's own ministry, MPI, acknowledges the struggle the sector is going through with its 2020 Apiculture Monitoring Report.

Less spin, more facts please minister!

More like this

Wrong focus

Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.

Popular Reads

back to top

Featured

$10m Boost for Govt Coffers From Pāmu

$10m Boost for Govt Coffers From Pāmu

State farmer Pāmu (Landcorp) has announced it will pay a $10 million special dividend to the Crown off the back of a strong outlook for the business and a capital repayment of $9.5 million following Fonterra's consumer business sale.

Editorial: Calm and Common Sense

OPINION: As the fuel crisis hits the country and rural New Zealand in particular, perhaps it's time to turn to one of the kaumatua of the rural sector, Pita Alexander - farm accountant, advisor and a source of knowledge and insightfulness.

National

Machinery & Products

Chinese Tractors Eye Western Europe

Having caused quite a stir at last year’s Agritechnica, Chinese manufacturer Zoomlion is reported to be conducting large-scale field trials…

» Latest Print Issues Online

dairynewscover
ruralnewscover
winegrowercover

Visit archives

The Hound

What A Choice!

OPINION: If you ask this old mutt, the choice at the next election isn't shaping up as a contest of…

Your Call!

OPINION: A mate of yours says we're long overdue for a reckoning on what value farmers really get for the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter