Arise Sir Graeme...
It was great to see two of the agribusiness sector’s long-serving contributors acknowledged in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours list.
Normally, such gongs are dished out to an array of anonymous luvvies from the theatre and arts world under Labour, and business leaders under National. So it is good to see the agriculture sector getting some well-deserved recognition.
Meat baron Graeme Harrison knighthood for his lifetime efforts’ in the sector and John Roadley’s member of the New Zealand of Merit for his equally stellar contributions to the dairy industry are both equally deserved.
As the inaugural chairman of Fonterra and champion of co-operatively owned dairying, Roadley has now retired to a vineyard in Marlborough. He was the last chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board and the first chairman of Fonterra, overseeing the industry’s transition from multiple local co-operatives to a single, farmer-owned company.
Roadley believes – and is probably right – that dairying had risen to the top of the farming sector because farmers controlled their industry, invested in research and adopted the technology in their farms and dairy plants.
As Roadley pointed out for about 15 years he and his wife Lois had been under constant pressure with no let-up, day or night.
“Farmers are hard taskmasters. It is nice to be recognised.”
Roadley’s involvement in dairy management began in 1988, when he became a director of the Alpine Dairy Co-operative in Temuka.
Meanwhile, Sir Graeme Harrison, founder of beef and lamb exporter Anzco Foods, says he’s been happy to spend his 40-year career in an out-of-fashion business.
Harrison is the most recent knight in a long line of New Zealand meat industry leaders to be similarly honoured. His message about New Zealand’s future prospects and where the country’s wealth is going to come from is simple.
He quotes Beef + Lamb New Zealand economist Rob Davison, who says: “As Silicon Valley is to California, agriculture is to New Zealand”.
“It is not only agriculture. New Zealand needs agriculture plus other industries. But the ones in which we have great strength and comparative advantage are agriculture, forestry, seafood and, like it or not, the mineral sector.”
Harrison started Anzco in 1984 as a sheepmeat marketing company for the farmer-owned Meat Producers Board.
It was successful, opening the door to a potentially lucrative Asian market. The board sold down its ownership in the 1990s and he and his staff kept a cornerstone shareholding. The remaining shares are held by Japanese food companies Itoham Foods, with 48 per cent, and Nippon Suisan Kaisha, with 25 per cent.
Today Anzco employs 2800 people, has assets of $500 million and revenues exceeding $1.2 billion.
Agribusiness – and New Zealand – should be grateful for the efforts of people like Harrison and Roadley who have made lifelong contributions to the sector. We are now looking to the next generation of sector heads – and future national honour holders – to lead the country get out of the big hole it is currently in.