Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the NZ arable industry's pitch to McDonald’s

Transcript

Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the NZ arable industry's pitch to McDonald’s · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. The
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Rural Report on Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive. Jamie Mackay, host of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: The Country, is with us. Hello, Jamie.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hello, Heather, and I heard you talking about Winston before
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: six o'clock being all over the place. And I just wonder, Heather,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: between you and I, whether he might have had a
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: senior moment when he put together the party list. It
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: was published yesterday, 50 candidates on it. Obviously, Winston's one,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Shane's two. Good to see Mark Patterson, the ag guy,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: in it four. But candidates, Winston's list only, list only
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: as he has been for a long time. Candidates two
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: through to 49 are all allocated an electorate to stand in.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: strangely in my mind anyhow there's a guy by the
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: name of Murray Chong who is number 50 on the
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: party list and he is listed as list only now
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: why would you put a list only candidate at number
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: 50 on your party list when you're polling 10% go
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: figure that one and one more wee gimmicky quirk for
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: you Heather I note that three newcomers are in at 6, 7,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: 8 including Michael Laws and Craig Stobo the finance guy
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: well Tane Randall, when he was an All Black and
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: an All Black captain, played six, seven and eight. Now
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: he's nine on the party list. Oh, I love what
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: you've done there.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: You're welcome. Yeah, but a crossover of rugby and politics there.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: What else could you want from a New Zealand male? Hey,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: thank you. McDonald's, I'm fascinated by this.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: So what are they looking for here? Well, it's not
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: what McDonald's are looking for. It's what the New Zealand
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: arable farmers are looking for. Because, as you know, they're
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: very much a beleaguered industry at the moment. They're really,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: really battling. Now, McDonald's currently sources its grain to make
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: its buns from Australian, imported Australian wheat. That's processed in
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Auckland for bun making. Now, the arable industry has tried
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: in the past, unsuccessfully, to to engage with McDonald's and
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: try and get them to use New Zealand-made grain or
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: New Zealand-grown grain as opposed to the Aussie stuff. At
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: $ 645 a tonne for New Zealand wheat, the actual savings
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: are almost, well, they're bugger all, to be honest. It's
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: less than the cost of a hamburger Or the wheat
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: in a hamburger is less than four cents per hamburger bun.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: So it's very minimal at all. So what the arable
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: industry is saying is they've got no issues at all
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: with the quality or consistency of supply. The industry produces
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: around 100,000 tons of milling wheat. They could produce a
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: lot more if they could find a home for it.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: having McDonald's as a customer would be a huge boost
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: for this industry, low on confidence and struggling with profitability. Now,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the cost of the bun, which has little effect on
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the end value of the hamburger, would increase growers' income
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: by 50%. Just think about that. It would also add
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: further credence to McDonald's claim to use locally made products.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: And they certainly crow about that. Good on them. So McDonald's,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: come to the party. Go and support the arable farmers
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: in this country and use New Zealand grown milling wheat
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: for your buns. Good stuff.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for telling us that, Jamie. Interesting stuff.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Jamie Mackay, host of The Country.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: For more from Newstalk ZB, listen live, on air or online.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And keep our shows with you wherever you go with
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: our podcasts on iHeartRadio.