Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host explains the impact the Wattie’s closure could have on farmers

Transcript

Jamie Mackay: The Country host explains the impact the Wattie’s closure could have on farmers · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
• 0:12
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• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Jamie MacKaye, host of the Countries with us Alo Jamie. Hello, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: Just on those weight loss drugs. They are the likes
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  Speaker 2: of a Zempe and those sort of drugs very good
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  Speaker 2: for dairy farming. There's been a bit of a boom
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  Speaker 2: in the demand for protein, and I understand that is
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  Speaker 2: because younger people using the weight loss drugs don't want
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  Speaker 2: to lose muscle mass, so they're bulking up on the protein.
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  Speaker 2: So there you go. Every cloud has its silver lining. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's absolutely right.
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  Speaker 1: Now, speaking of farming obviously, because it's you.
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  Speaker 2: How do you think the Heinz Watys thing is going,
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  Speaker 2: especially in christ You're just going to affect the farmers. Well,
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  Speaker 2: it's interesting. I was reading a story somewhere and I
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  Speaker 2: can't even credit the source, unfortunately, Heather, because I've forgotten. Look,
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  Speaker 2: roughly two hundred and twenty that's quite a number of growers.
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  Speaker 2: Pea and vegetable growers will be affected by the Heinz
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  Speaker 2: Waddi decision to hold production of frozen vegetables at their
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  Speaker 2: christ Church factory. As a result, we're seeing more interest
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  Speaker 2: in going from arable which isn't paying very well at
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  Speaker 2: the moment, to dairy farming. There's been an uptick in conversions.
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  Speaker 2: Just looking around those numbers, I think something like, depending
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  Speaker 2: on who you believe, anything from twenty five to fifty
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  Speaker 2: conversions are taking place across Canterbury. Resource consent is no
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  Speaker 2: longer needed for a dairy conversion. If you've got an
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  Speaker 2: existing farming practice that qualifies, but you do need a
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  Speaker 2: resource consent for your affluent discharge. So this is how
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  Speaker 2: they're figuring out how many conversions are happening in the province.
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  Speaker 2: It seems to be a bit of an imprecise science
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  Speaker 2: to me. So we've seen thirty two new affluent discharge consents.
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  Speaker 2: Three further consent applications were withdrawn, so that leaves us
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  Speaker 2: at thirty two. Another fifteen were lodged and are in
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  Speaker 2: the consenting process, so that's very close to fifty. My
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  Speaker 2: math has got that it's forty seven. Canterbury now a
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  Speaker 2: huge dairying industry, a dairying province, should I say twenty
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  Speaker 2: percent of the country's cows are domiciled and between North
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  Speaker 2: and South Canterbury twenty two percent of the country's milk
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  Speaker 2: solid production coming out of that region. Most of it
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  Speaker 2: is irrigated. Most of it's very high productive land. That
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  Speaker 2: Canterbury plains land, especially when you put water on it,
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  Speaker 2: is great at growing things. So if you can't grow
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  Speaker 2: veggies and veg veggies and arable crops, maybe you can
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  Speaker 2: grow some milk and get some protein into those people
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  Speaker 2: taking the weight losstro those people.
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  Speaker 1: There is a term for it, Jamie.
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  Speaker 2: It's come through on the text machine. They're called we're
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  Speaker 2: govy scarecrows.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, no, we don't need to cast dispersions. They
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  Speaker 1: want to look like that and they look wonderful. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: how's the confidence amongst the farmers.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the latest Rabobank well, the first Rabobank Rural Confidence
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  Speaker 2: Survey is out for the year now. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: any of this fell in, or very little of it
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  Speaker 2: fell in since the start of the war. And I've
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  Speaker 2: been listening to you talking about the fuel crisis across
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  Speaker 2: the Tasman. I was talking to my guy over there
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  Speaker 2: today and ain't good. They're worse off than we are.
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  Speaker 2: So it's just inching up. We've had net positive readings
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  Speaker 2: and farmer confidence in the last seven quarters dating back
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  Speaker 2: to September twenty twenty four. Not Surprisingly, higher commodity prices
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  Speaker 2: at fifty two percent of respondents was cited as the
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  Speaker 2: major source of optimism, and not surprisingly, rising input costs
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  Speaker 2: thirty two percent was the most prominent reason given by
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  Speaker 2: those farmers with a negative outlook. Obviously that number will
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  Speaker 2: get higher since the advent of this war in the
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  Speaker 2: Middle East. In the Middle East. Now, despite the small
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  Speaker 2: drop in some farmer confidence, not all right across the board,
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  Speaker 2: but some sheep and beef farmers continue to be the
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  Speaker 2: most optimistic. Dairy farmers and horticulturists are now more upbeat
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  Speaker 2: about their prospects than they were late last year. No
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  Speaker 2: surprise to see the dairy farmers more optimistic. Here at
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  Speaker 2: heather nine falls to finish off twenty twenty five and
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  Speaker 2: the GDT, including Wednesday's zero point one percent lift, we've
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  Speaker 2: had six positive auctions to kick off twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 2: And maybe between the weight loss drugs and the correlation
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  Speaker 2: between whole milk powder and oil prices, maybe dairy farming's
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  Speaker 2: the business to be in.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, sounds like it, Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: Jammie look After Yourself Jammie McKay, Host of the Country.
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