Latest news with #Ōtautahi
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Dropping livestock numbers dominate red meat sector event
File photo. Photo: 123rf New Zealand red meat exports earned an extra $1.2 billion this year, due to good livestock pricing and tighter supplies. But the country's $10 billion red meat sector has raised the alarm that it was struggling to get the numbers of livestock through the meat works it needed to feed hungry international consumers. More than 300 red meat producers, processors and marketers gathered in Ōtautahi for the Red Meat Sector Conference on Tuesday. While import tariffs into key market the United States and subdued consumer demand in China were top of the agenda, the surity of livestock supply underpinned the sector's concerns for a resilient future. The latest figures from StatsNZ showed the national sheep flock and deer herd were continuing to decline. Industry group Beef and Lamb New Zealand's chairperson Kate Acland told the event, carbon farming on productive land under the Emissions Trading Scheme was driving the significant reduction in livestock numbers. Agriculture Minister Todd McClay speaking at the Red Meat Sector Conference in Christchurch on Tuesday. Photo: RNZ/Monique Steele "New Zealand currently faces over-capacity in the processing industry," she said. "We have more plants and more processing lines than we have livestock to sustain them efficiently and it risks getting worse. "The drop in stock numbers represents a lost opportunity. We owe it to farmers to face this challenge head on." She said greater collaboration among competing companies was a sensible strategic approach. "If we want a future-fit industry, we need to be bold about optimising capacity and about how we collaborate," she said. "The fall in stock numbers is particularly frustrating because at a time when there's strong demand globally and high export prices, our processors have not been able to capitalise on this. "Our exports would have been hundreds of millions higher if the supply had been there." The conference came during a time when the country's only farmer-owned red meat co-operative Alliance Group was preparing a case of private investment for its farmer-shareholders to vote on in the coming months. Alliance announced the decision to shut its historic Smithfield meat plant in Timaru in October, amid dropping livestock numbers, particularly breeding ewes, with 600 people losing their jobs. Farmers were getting record prices for beef, however they were driven in part by good demand amid tighter supplies. File photo. Photo:/File via CNN Newsource Furthermore, New Zealand imported a near-record volume of beef from Australia in June, as processors worked to secure greater volumes to match meat plant capacity. Meanwhile, Todd McClay, Minister for Agriculture and Trade and Investment, said the Government was working to "get Wellington out of farming" to enable primary sector growth, and bring value back to the farmgate. "We want to reduce regulation and cost on farm," he said. "I reckon it's a great time to be a farmer in New Zealand at the moment. "As there are challenges fronting up around the world, geopolitics, tariffs, protectionism, and so on, the world still needs high quality, safe food. "And you don't get higher quality of safer food anywhere in the world with a wonderful carbon footprint story to tell." He said the government invested in the $8 million Taste Pure Natire campaign with industry to strengthen red meat's position in China, to drive better returns for farmers and processors. StatsNZ figures showing sheep numbers dropped three percent in 2024 to 23.6 million sheep, while deer numbers dropped 4 percent between 2023 and 2024 to 709,000. However, the beef boom has kept stock numbers relatively stable rising one percent in the last year to 3.7 million beef cattle. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Red meat sector 'frustrated' at 'lost opportunity' in failing to fill meat plants and feed hungry global markets
File photo. Photo: 123rf New Zealand red meat exports earned an extra $1.2 billion this year, due to good livestock pricing and tighter supplies. But the country's $10 billion red meat sector has raised the alarm that it was struggling to get the numbers of livestock through the meat works it needed to feed hungry international consumers. More than 300 red meat producers, processors and marketers gathered in Ōtautahi for the Red Meat Sector Conference on Tuesday. While import tariffs into key market the United States and subdued consumer demand in China were top of the agenda, the surity of livestock supply underpinned the sector's concerns for a resilient future. The latest figures from StatsNZ showed the national sheep flock and deer herd were continuing to decline. Industry group Beef and Lamb New Zealand's chairperson Kate Acland told the event, carbon farming on productive land under the Emissions Trading Scheme was driving the significant reduction in livestock numbers. Agriculture Minister Todd McClay speaking at the Red Meat Sector Conference in Christchurch on Tuesday. Photo: RNZ/Monique Steele "New Zealand currently faces over-capacity in the processing industry," she said. "We have more plants and more processing lines than we have livestock to sustain them efficiently and it risks getting worse. "The drop in stock numbers represents a lost opportunity. We owe it to farmers to face this challenge head on." She said greater collaboration among competing companies was a sensible strategic approach. "If we want a future-fit industry, we need to be bold about optimising capacity and about how we collaborate," she said. "The fall in stock numbers is particularly frustrating because at a time when there's strong demand globally and high export prices, our processors have not been able to capitalise on this. "Our exports would have been hundreds of millions higher if the supply had been there." The conference came during a time when the country's only farmer-owned red meat co-operative Alliance Group was preparing a case of private investment for its farmer-shareholders to vote on in the coming months. Alliance announced the decision to shut its historic Smithfield meat plant in Timaru in October, amid dropping livestock numbers, particularly breeding ewes, with 600 people losing their jobs. Farmers were getting record prices for beef, however they were driven in part by good demand amid tighter supplies. Furthermore, New Zealand imported a near-record volume of beef from Australia in June, as processors worked to secure greater volumes to match meat plant capacity. Meanwhile, Todd McClay, Minister for Agriculture and Trade and Investment, said the Government was working to "get Wellington out of farming" to enable primary sector growth, and bring value back to the farmgate. "We want to reduce regulation and cost on farm," he said. "I reckon it's a great time to be a farmer in New Zealand at the moment. "As there are challenges fronting up around the world, geopolitics, tariffs, protectionism, and so on, the world still needs high quality, safe food. "And you don't get higher quality of safer food anywhere in the world with a wonderful carbon footprint story to tell." He said the government invested in the $8 million Taste Pure Natire campaign with industry to strengthen red meat's position in China, to drive better returns for farmers and processors. StatsNZ figures showing sheep numbers dropped three percent in 2024 to 23.6 million sheep, while deer numbers dropped 4 percent between 2023 and 2024 to 709,000. However, the beef boom has kept stock numbers relatively stable rising one percent in the last year to 3.7 million beef cattle. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
04-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Plant production 'one of the most underrated horticultural sectors', says young industry leader
Jake Linklater of Nova Natives in Canterbury's Templeton has been named Young Plant Producer of the Year 2025. Photo: SUPPLIED A young, award-winning plant producer says while plant production is critical to the success of both primary industries and domestic gardens, he believes the sector's "good mahi" goes under the radar. Lincoln University conservation and ecology student Jake Linklater won the prestigious Young Plant Producer of the Year award in his hometown of Christchurch last week. Linklater has been the nursery manager at Nova Natives in Templeton, near Ōtautahi, for the past three and a half years and has worked in plant production for more than five years. "I came from experience in landscaping and arboriculture before this, and every time I went and visited a nursery, I always thought that would be such a cool job," he said. "So when landscaping was finished for me and my boss ran out of work, I went sideways in horticulture and went into nursery production. "I haven't really looked back since." Nova Natives sells native plants to nurseries, farmers, commercial landscapers and community groups for restoration projects. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes Unlike the majority of nurseries, which were privately-owned, Nova Natives was a social enterprise for Nova Trust that ran addiction treatment and recovery programmes . "The pool of money that we do generate goes back into the trust as a whole and helps run the programme here through our drug and alcohol rehab programme," Linklater said. He said it was a rewarding experience. "It's always nice, and it's good to give a lot of them life and employment skills as well. And getting them up and moving physically, because a lot of them haven't really had routine in a number of years, so it all helps. And that circles back around." Linklater and four other finalists faced two days of practical challenges, testing skills in finance, biosecurity, plant propagation, identification and more, based on a points system. Winning the contest, hosted by the International Plant Propagators' Society, will see Linklater go head-to-head with winners across industry contests in viticulture, growing, aboriculture and more in November for the overarching Young Horticulturalist of the Year contest. They will be vying for a prize pool worth more than $20,000. So he said it was a big year ahead. "I'm looking forward to meeting people from the other sectors and hopefully doing my sector proud, because I believe we're one of the most underrated horticultural sectors in the industry," he said. "We lay the groundwork for all the other sectors as well, producing the plants before they get planted out in their vineyards or out in their gardens. "I believe we do a lot of good mahi that goes under the radar." The award came with 12-month mentorship support and a $4000 fund towards advancing his career in plant production. Finalists included first runner-up Kirsten Phillips-Ong of Northland, second runner-up Johnnie Clay of Christchurch, then Auckland's Ezra Alexander and Kerikeri's Yuong Chaiyaklang. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Spinoff
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Review: The SpongeBob SquarePants musical is more than nautical nonsense
Alex Casey heads along to SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical and reflects on the enduring power of the optimistic sea sponge. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. When I was a kid, I would sit agape in front of SpongeBob SquarePants after school everyday, a small bag of sour cream and chive-flavoured chips in one hand and the VCR remote in the other. With the arrival of each ad break, I'd diligently hit pause on the first frame, determined to craft the perfect ad-free omnibus tape to enjoy again and again and again. I felt as absorbent and porous as the titular sponge himself, wanting to soak up every moment of the subversive, optimistic, anarchic and sometimes demented undersea shenanigans of Bikini Bottom. Creator Stephen Hillenburger was a failed marine biologist, who first swapped the scuba mask for a pencil on the equally surreal 90s Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko's Modern Life. Soon he started pitching a cartoon about a wide-eyed 'spongeboy' who loved his job and his friends, and was surrounded by all manner of characters including a dim-witted bestie (Patrick Star) and a perpetually aggrieved neighbour (Squidward Tentacles). In 1999, SpongeBob wandered onto our screens in his shiny black shoes and notably square pants, and basically never left. While he still ropes in kids with his colourful world and silly faces, there's also plenty of adults out there who still believe in the power of the sponge. 'I think SpongeBob SquarePants is better than The Simpsons,' David Correos recalled during his My Life in TV interview last year. 'Spongebob is way deeper and way more intellectual.' Correos isn't alone in this thinking – much has been written about the show's postmodern ethos, fascinating patterns of masculinity, deeply Marxist ideas and construction of The American Dream. It's also just really funny, too. With all this in mind, I toddled along to Ōtautahi's Court Theatre to see SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical live on stage this week. Directed by Dan Bain, it was a kaleidoscopic trip, centred around the quest of 'a simple sponge' to stop a deadly volcano from destroying Bikini Bottom. The rich folk (Mr Krabs) capitalise on the chaos, the tyrants (Plankton) use it as an opportunity to seize control, the government flails around in incompetence and the media turns the whole thing into sensationalist frenzy. Sound familiar? Meanwhile, Sandy Cheeks (Libby McMahon) turns to science, SpongeBob (Cole Moffatt) stays eternally optimistic, and Patrick (Bill Cross) becomes a dim-witted distraction for those desperate for a saviour (reminiscent of Katy Perry saving the world by going to space). All of this is couched with staggering musical numbers, impressive costuming (Squidward's legs were a highlight) and classic gags ('Is that something we should worry about?' a concerned citizen asks. 'Breaking news: that is something we should worry about' the newsreader bellows.) Other highlights of the show included the pipes on Mr Krabs' daughter Pearl (Olivia Skelton) in her own 'Defying Gravity' moment, and a couple of scene-stealing cameos from kids in the chorus line. I couldn't help but feel envious of the excited little kids in the crowd being exposed to such big, bold themes and glittering production design before they've even got all their damn teeth. My earliest theatre experience was a weird old fella doing Punch and Judy in the chilly school hall, now it's all An Evening With Peppa Pig and Bluey doing arena spectaculars. Then again, these big, bold stories are precisely what kids – and, more crucially, adults – need to see right now. The youth edition covered a lot of ground in its truncated 60 minute runtime, sneaking complex ideas about capitalism, community and climate change under a dazzling spectacle of bubbles, fairy lights, sequins and imagination. Not bad for a simple sea sponge.
RNZ News
24-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Ageing farm, orchard owners need succession to protect $150bn of assets
Farm succession is a hot topic at the Primary Industries NZ Summit in Ōtautahi. Photo: RNZ/Monique Steele Farm or orchard owners - especially those approaching retirement age - are being urged to prepare for farm succession as a massive transfer of land and wealth looms. A new report by Rabobank, Changing of the Guard showed more than half of New Zealand's approximately 17,320 farm and orchard owners will reach the pension age of 65 in the next decade. It found that based off land values, agriculture and horticulture will need to prepare to manage the largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, with farm assets estimated to be worth $150 billion. Farm succession was a hot topic on day one of the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Ōtautahi on Tuesday, which coincided with the release of the report. Agriculture Minister Todd McClay also spoke to the hundreds of guests, in addition to other industry experts. Rabobank chief executive Todd Charteris told the summit that economic, environmental and emotional were the drivers behind farm succession, including risks of disconnect between generations and the realities of servicing debt. "Succession is not a moment in time - it's a process that takes years of planning, conversation and adaptation," Charteris said. "The traditional model of passing the farm to the next generation is under pressure." The report surveyed 450 farmers and found only a third had a formal succession plan in place. A further half of the respondents had not discussed farm succession nor started a plan, whereas 17 percent had discussed it, it found. It also showed while a third of farmers intended to pass the farm onto their children, 39 percent of them reported having no children seriously interested in farming. Charteris said the findings highlighted the extent of the succession challenge ahead for the agricultural sector. "We also found that the financial obstacles aren't getting any smaller to farm ownership and transferring of that," he said. "But if anything, what we've seen is that may have plateaued over those years." Charteris said there were new and innovative models emerging that could help families stay connected to their land, like a partial sale, turning ownership to iwi or whanau, or engaging private capital. The Templeton family of coastal Southland had undertaken its own farm succession plan, with the sons taking up much of the dairy farming business as fifth-generation. Speaking at a panel discussion in Christchurch, Peter Templeton - also a Nuttfield scholar - said farm succession could be a difficult process, but those interested should be radically transparent with family members. "Succession is a 10 to 15-year process, so start when you've still got some energy left, don't start late," Templeton said. "If you're on a family farm, talk about the farm outside of the individual people. So, 'how does the farm work for the families?' I think is quite a good way of looking at it." Skye Macdonald of 16,000 hectare high country sheep farm Middlehurst Station in Marlborough's Awatere Valley shared the farm workload with her three other siblings, as parents Willy and Sue looked to the future. Macdonald said succession was hard work, but many lessons had been learned along the way. She said keeping the family and station legacy going was crucial. "Succession doesn't really ever stop, does it? It just keeps on going down the down the line and if you work hard and be open about it, just keep going with it," she said. The report also found while a third of farmers intended to pass the farm on to their children, just below 40 percent reported having no children seriously interested in farming. The Primary Industries New Zealand Summit will continue into Wednesday. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
