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Jamie Mackay: The Country host on weight loss drugs boosting demand for fish · Best of Business

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  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.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Jamie Mackay, host of The Country, is with us now. Evening, Jamie.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, Heather. Who wants to talk farming when you can
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  Speaker 3: talk dirty work?
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  Speaker 2: Well, which is actually dirty work some of the time,
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  Speaker 2: the old farming, isn't it? How are they feeling about the...
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  Speaker 2: But not that kind of dirty work, is it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's very dirty work down in my home province.
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  Speaker 3: I'm based in Dunedin these days, but Gee, just a
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  Speaker 3: shout-out to the farmers down south on southwest Otago. They're
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  Speaker 3: going to get through September, Heather, with literally two days,
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  Speaker 3: it looks like, without rain. It's like Passchendaele down there.
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  Speaker 3: It's brutal. So thoughts and prayers for the farmers down
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  Speaker 3: south who are seeing the early signs of the salmina.
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  Speaker 3: Really biting hard for them.
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  Speaker 2: How are farmers feeling about the updated Farmgate milk price?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the world's worst-kept secret. Interestingly, Fonterra came out and announced,
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  Speaker 3: and I know you would have covered it yesterday, they
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  Speaker 3: announced it yesterday morning, which I found rather strange, considering
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  Speaker 3: they had their annual results and they normally announce milk
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  Speaker 3: prices there, and that's happening on Thursday. So, look, it's good.
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  Speaker 3: It's up 25 cents to $ 9.
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  Speaker 1: 50.
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  Speaker 3: If this El Nino does really bite and we get
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  Speaker 3: dry and production falls, there he is saying the break-even
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  Speaker 3: price drops. or for milk production could be $ 9. 07. So
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  Speaker 3: that's still a reasonably thin margin, $ 9. 50 versus $ 9. 07. More interesting,
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  Speaker 3: I think, tomorrow or on Thursday when Fonterra announces its
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  Speaker 3: annual results here, there will be to see what Myles Hurrell,
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  Speaker 3: the departed CEO, promised. When they sold the mainland group,
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  Speaker 3: the consumer business, to French giant Lactalis for $ 4. 2 billion, remember,
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  Speaker 3: The dairy farmers got $ 3. 2 billion of that. They got
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  Speaker 3: $ 2 per share capital return. Miles and the team at
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  Speaker 3: Fonterra said the target was to make up all the
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  Speaker 3: lost earnings from their consumer business, which they no longer own,
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  Speaker 3: within three years. So on Thursday, we will find out
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  Speaker 3: how close they are to making that money, or certainly
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  Speaker 3: year one of it. So just keep an eye out
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  Speaker 3: for that one. The milk price, the other one is
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  Speaker 3: they've announced a lift And the forecast milk price they
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  Speaker 3: do announce on Thursday at the best of my knowledge,
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  Speaker 3: the final price for the 25-26 season. And I'm imagining
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  Speaker 3: it's going to be pretty close to that $ 9. 75 that
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  Speaker 3: they're sitting at at the moment. All right.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, listen, what's the relationship between the weight loss drugs
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  Speaker 2: and our fish exports?
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  Speaker 3: Well, weight loss drugs, do I segue to Shane Jones
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  Speaker 3: or would that be size? This is a story that
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  Speaker 3: will warm the cockles of Shane's heart because I know
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  Speaker 3: he's big on aquaculture. So what they're saying, interestingly, and
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  Speaker 3: they had a big meeting with officials, investors, chief executives,
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  Speaker 3: Iwi representatives and other sector leaders, including the Ministry for
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  Speaker 3: Primary Industries. They're saying what we need to be doing
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  Speaker 3: more of on this country is open ocean fish farming.
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  Speaker 3: We're already doing it. For instance, we've got that big
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand king salmon open ocean farm in the Cook Strait.
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  Speaker 3: Ngāi Tahu have got a salmon project approved under fast
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  Speaker 3: track off Stewart Island. And there is an iwi-owned, this
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  Speaker 3: is just three examples of an iwi-owned mussel farm off Pōtiki.
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  Speaker 3: So what they're saying is they're trying to set this
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  Speaker 3: aspirational goal to increase aquaculture rates. exports to 450 tonnes
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  Speaker 3: a year, driven off the back of this super demand
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  Speaker 3: out there for high-value protein. Interestingly, MPI Director Ray Smith,
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  Speaker 3: a pretty smart sort of rooster, said 93% of the
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  Speaker 3: food New Zealand produces is exported. It's worth $ 64 billion
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  Speaker 3: to us a year at the moment and climbing, but
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  Speaker 3: of that, only $ 750 million comes from aquaculture. That's just
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  Speaker 3: over 1%. And he went on to say, we're big
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  Speaker 3: in dairy, we're big in sheep, we're big in beef, horticulture,
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  Speaker 3: forestry as well. But when it comes to aquaculture, we're
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  Speaker 3: not really doing the business. If you think about it,
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand is surrounded by water, but we barely use it.
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  Speaker 3: So there you go. Interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Jamie, thank you very much. It's always good to
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  Speaker 2: talk to you. Jamie Mackay, host of The Country.
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