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Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the global uncertainties impacting Kiwi farmers · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: Jamie mckaye, host of the Countries with us l O
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  Speaker 2: Jamie good A. Heather, Right, so this investigation into the
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  Speaker 2: lamb exports, tell me about.
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  Speaker 3: It, Well, Bloody Trump is going to get us one
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  Speaker 3: way or another. He's making farming. In fact, he's making
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  Speaker 3: business pretty tough in this country at the moment. You
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  Speaker 3: might remember on Tuesday evening we were talking about beef
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  Speaker 3: and lamb New Zealand's mid season update, and a couple
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  Speaker 3: of the key risk factors were obviously the Middle East
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  Speaker 3: goes without saying in the US trade policy. Well, an
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  Speaker 3: investigation into New Zealand and Australian lamb exports to the
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  Speaker 3: US looks set to proceed. As US President Donald Trump
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  Speaker 3: searches for replacements for his Liberation Day tariffs, the US
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  Speaker 3: International Trade Commission can investigate where the surges and imports
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  Speaker 3: are causing serious injury to the US domestic market and industries. Now,
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  Speaker 3: the numbers are not insignificance here, Heather. The American sheep
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  Speaker 3: farmers are not un too happy. While they're happy to
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  Speaker 3: take all the beef we can offer. They're not so
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  Speaker 3: happy about the sheep meat because imports increased forty five
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  Speaker 3: percent between twenty twenty and twenty twenty three. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: Australia and New Zealand accounted for ninety nine percent of
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  Speaker 3: imports over that time. Now, the one meat industry source
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  Speaker 3: has said February's ruling against Trump's Liberation Day tariffs by
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  Speaker 3: the US Supreme Court mean that the administration, as I said,
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  Speaker 3: is looking for any means possible to get its tariff
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  Speaker 3: agenda back on track. Because New Zealand sheep meat exports
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  Speaker 3: to the US currently facing ten percent that's down from
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  Speaker 3: the fifteen percent before the ruling. It's not chicken feed
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  Speaker 3: what we're sending over there either. Our meat sheep meat
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  Speaker 3: export value rows ten percent to six hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 3: five million in the past year, so it's a sizeable mark.
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  Speaker 3: Forest beef and lamb. New Zealand chair Kate Ackland is
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  Speaker 3: arguing that counter seasonality we provide lamb in their off
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  Speaker 3: season production means it's not a direct threat to US producers.
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  Speaker 3: But I don't think the American sheep farmers heather are
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  Speaker 3: buying that for one moment.
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  Speaker 2: No, hey, listen. So is it the case that the
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  Speaker 2: arable farmers who were supplying waters and McCain's are now
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  Speaker 2: actually getting out about it, getting out of arable farming.
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  Speaker 3: Well they are if they can. And we're particularly seeing
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  Speaker 3: this and the likes of Canterbury. No one seems to know,
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  Speaker 3: not even the high you know, the people in highest
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  Speaker 3: places like you know, the likes and Miles Hurrel can
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  Speaker 3: tell us exactly. Maybe someone on he can can how
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  Speaker 3: many conversions are happening in Canterbury this season? We're hearing
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  Speaker 3: this is dairy conversions. We're hearing sort of twenty to fifty.
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  Speaker 3: But what's happened to these poor old arable farmers. They
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  Speaker 3: haven't had a great season weather wise. Now they're hit
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  Speaker 3: with the double whammy of fuel and fertilizer diesels more
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  Speaker 3: than doubled fertilizer prices to follow suit. They literally just
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  Speaker 3: can't make a buck. And when you look at some
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  Speaker 3: of the numbers, a combine harvester can use up to
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  Speaker 3: one thousand liters of diesel a day. So it's no
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  Speaker 3: surprise that these arable farmers are rarely struggling. Of course,
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  Speaker 3: it's not easy. It's not like turning on a tap,
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  Speaker 3: switching from arable farming to dairy farming or another land use.
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  Speaker 3: You have to have consents and then you have to
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  Speaker 3: change whatever you're doing and your farming practices. But the
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  Speaker 3: experts are suggesting farmers look maybe to change into crops
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  Speaker 3: that need less care and attention in the spring and
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  Speaker 3: therefore cheaper to grow. You may get less income off them,
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  Speaker 3: but the costs for putting them in could be considerably less.
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  Speaker 3: Now the fertilizer prices, that is a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: nightmare at the moment. I know the fuel's getting all
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  Speaker 3: the attention, but the likes of your rear prices. I'll
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  Speaker 3: use in Australia as an example, Australian sixteen hundred dollars
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  Speaker 3: a ton. That's more than double. Now you've got to remember.
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  Speaker 3: I'll leave one leave you with one more fact. Half
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  Speaker 3: of the world's food here is grown by nitrogen. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, if we don't produce it or we can't
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  Speaker 3: get enough of it, people are going to go hungry.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting. Hey listen, well, I say interesting, but also really scary.
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  Speaker 1: Listen.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Jamie is always talking you. Next week,
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  Speaker 2: Jamie Mackay, host of the country.
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