Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host speaks ahead of the International Dairy Federation's World Dairy Summit

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Jamie Mackay: The Country host speaks ahead of the International Dairy Federation's World Dairy Summit · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Jamie Mackay, host of The Country's With Us. Hello, Jamie.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: G'day, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: How do you think the dairy farmers feel about coming
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  Speaker 2: to Auckland?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think they'll be pretty excited about it. Auckland's
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  Speaker 3: going to be the Dairy World's meeting place next month, Heather.
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  Speaker 3: And some of us hangers-on in the media are going
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  Speaker 3: to turn up as well. It's for the International Dairy
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  Speaker 3: Federation's World Dairy Summit. Third time it's been held in
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand. Going to be held in the Flash New
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  Speaker 3: International Convention Centre, November 15 to 20. This incidentally is
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  Speaker 3: the longest running international agricultural event globally because it was
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: founded way back in Europe in 1903. Now there's a
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  Speaker 3: Canadian bloke by the name of Gilles Froment. I've got
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  Speaker 3: no idea how to pronounce his name. Did that sound
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  Speaker 3: French enough for you? French-Canadian enough for you, Heather? He's
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  Speaker 3: the Senior Vice President also, as well as being the
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  Speaker 3: President of the IDF, he's the Senior Vice President of
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  Speaker 3: Government and Industry Relations at Lactalis Canada. and he's been
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  Speaker 3: the president for the past two years. As I said,
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  Speaker 3: the summit was last held here in 2010 and before
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  Speaker 3: that in 2001, the year which Fonterra was formed. New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand produces 3% of the world's milk. We know that
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  Speaker 3: countries like India produce a hell of a lot of milk,
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  Speaker 3: but they consume it all themselves. We're the eighth largest
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  Speaker 3: producer globally, but when it comes to being an exporter,
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  Speaker 3: we're the biggest in the game because we trade most
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  Speaker 3: of ours. Now, The IDF president, whose name I can't pronounce,
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  Speaker 3: said the protein demand was growing faster than anyone would
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  Speaker 3: have expected five to 10 years ago. And a lot
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  Speaker 3: of this is off the back of the protein boom.
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  Speaker 3: And forecasts show last year that there could be a
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  Speaker 3: gap of anywhere between 10 billion and 30 billion litres
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  Speaker 3: of milk annually by 2030, all of which I'd imagine, Heather,
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  Speaker 3: is pretty good news for our dairy farmers.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds very much the case. Now, am I taking
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  Speaker 2: it too far if I say it sounds like Federated
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  Speaker 2: Farmers has endorsed ACT?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Federated Farmers is supposedly politically impartial. They haven't really
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  Speaker 3: been in the past. To be fair, they're a bit
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  Speaker 3: like most farmers. They lean centre-right. But I will say
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  Speaker 3: that Federated Farmers has, and I've mentioned this before on
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  Speaker 3: your high-rating show, Heather, they have mended a lot of
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  Speaker 3: fences with the Labour Party and vice versa. So they
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  Speaker 3: have quite a good they have quite a good relationship.
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  Speaker 3: But feds have come out today and they've welcomed the
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  Speaker 3: new rural policies released by ACT. And obviously, as the
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  Speaker 3: farmers or as the politicians scrap for farmer votes amidst
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  Speaker 3: all this talk of Vote splitting. This is an interesting statement,
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  Speaker 3: I guess, by ACT. Influential, by the way, Heather, just
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  Speaker 3: on that strategic vote splitting, influential groups like the New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand Farmers Facebook page, which has a following of about
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  Speaker 3: a quarter of a million people, a lot of them offshore.
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  Speaker 3: Ground swells, another one, not to mention, obviously, Winston and
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  Speaker 3: David Seymour are banging this drum. And we all saw
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  Speaker 3: what happened in the RNZ Reid research poll. I'm not
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  Speaker 3: necessarily buying into those numbers, but I think National does
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  Speaker 3: have a problem with rural NZ numbers. Because what I'm hearing,
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  Speaker 3: rightly or wrongly, is that farmers keen to see a
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  Speaker 3: centre-right government return are looking at splitting their vote.
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  Speaker 2: Question for you, is part of it, I mean, obviously
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  Speaker 2: it's a strategic thing to get a centre-right government return,
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  Speaker 2: but is part of it also a disappointment in the
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  Speaker 2: National Party?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, that might be a bit harsh. Look, to be
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  Speaker 3: fair to the coalition across the board, including, and obviously
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  Speaker 3: the National Party's the largest part of that. And, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I'm on the outside looking in. I deal with farmers
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  Speaker 3: every day of the week and politicians every day of
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  Speaker 3: the week as well. This lot could not have been
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  Speaker 3: any more farmer friendly if they tried. So farmers who
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  Speaker 3: are having a whinge about the current coalition government need
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  Speaker 3: to pull their head in because they have done everything
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  Speaker 3: possible to make farming or to be farmer friendly. And
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  Speaker 3: it's a vast difference from what we saw, especially in
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  Speaker 3: the second Labour government with, you know, the likes of
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  Speaker 3: David Parker and Damien running amok. So anyhow, Damien will
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  Speaker 3: kill me for saying that. It's got to be nice to.
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  Speaker 1: Him, Heather.
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  Speaker 3: He might be the next trade minister.
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  Speaker 2: Well, on current polling. Hey, thank you very much, Jamie.
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  Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: Look after yourself.
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  Speaker 2: Jamie Mackay, host of The Country.
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  Speaker 1: For more from Newstalk ZB, listen live on air or
• 4:50
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• 4:53
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