Monthly Archives: October 2013

IT’S TIME for small dairy infant formula exporters to get over it. It’s almost three months since Fonterra’s false botulism scare hit the headlines, but the small exporters are beginning to sound like an old record. Their catch phrase – … Continue reading →

NEWS THAT Martyn Dunne, currently New Zealand High Commissioner to Australia and a former head of the Customs Service and senior army officer, has been named head of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is good news for the primary … Continue reading →

QUESTIONS ARE piling up as the Government launches its inquiry into Fonterra’s false botulism scare. One month ago, questions were swirling around Fonterra’s handling of product recall and how a dirty pipe at a Waikato factory could derail our global … Continue reading →

THE LATEST KPMG Agribusiness Agenda suggests a need for much greater understanding of the agribusiness sector by the country’s wider population. “The importance of the primary sector to New Zealand’s economy is not well understood by wider society,” the report … Continue reading →

THE NEW dairy industry accord designed to clean up waterways has been hailed by industry, councils and farmers, but it has drawn only lukewarm support from environmental groups. The accord sets national environmental benchmarks for dairy farming, covering stock exclusion … Continue reading →

THIS LATEST fiasco over meat shipments being held up on wharves in China raises the question of just how well the primary sector is being served by the Ministry for Primary Industry. All we are hearing from MPI over this … Continue reading →

AS FEDERATED Farmers warms up for its national conference and annual meeting in Ashburton this week, it’s timely to take a look at how the lobby group operates. Each of the seven national board members has a long list of … Continue reading →

THE AHUWHENUA Trophy was recently presented to Tarawera Station – a large Maori sheep and beef farm (about 30,000 stock) on the Napier Taupo highway. The station was one of three finalists for this prestigious award. All three were sizable … Continue reading →