2013 is looming…..
I had the pleasure to attend the young farmers regional competition on Saturday Night in Whangarei. It was great to see an example of the talent represented by the 8 finalists. The finalists came from different parts of the rural economy. From farmers in the traditional sense to those servicing the farming sector.
It was interesting to note the optimism in this sector. A local rural real estate agent told me that sales and enquiries were still bouncing along at a busy pace and that the sector seemed to be prospering nicely. The Banks of course are still keen to do business with the rural sector unlike their urban counterparts in the property development game who have found recently that the banks are treading a little bit more cautiously when securing funds against property.
12 years ago after selling my last business I purchased a 10 acre lifestyle block just out of Wanganui. My neighbour was a beef and cropping farmer. In my conversations with him I learnt about the cycles and the toughness of the farming. Back then he was looking at dairy conversion as the way to go. I couldn’t believe the resilience and toughness of this 3rd Generation farmer. Year after Year he would roll with the punches – refinancing when necessary, bringing on consultants onto his land once a quarter and taking on board advice and assistance to assist him through the tough times. When I last spoke to him 6 or 7 years ago things had definitely changed for the better. He was purchasing new farms, leasing more land and maximising the most of his opportunities.
Farming and Primary production like any other part of the economy goes through cycles.
With the downturn the economy is facing, it is quite clear that historical service centre towns like Whangarei and Dargaville still owe a lot to the flow on effect of a good rural economy.
Whilst the economy is cyclical there are a number of issues on the Horizon that farming bodies and associations should quite rightly be worried about.
In 2013 the Agricultural Sector in
In February this year the Northland Chamber of Commerce made a submission to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee regarding the Emissions trading and renewable preference bill currently before the select committee. In this we identified that to support the bill in the current format that some 1630 jobs in Northland would disappear.
We also supported in principle actions to reduce global emissions of Greenhouse Gases but we argued that the Government should not be imposing restrictive measures upon
In 2013 when the Agricultural industry has to operate under these conditions no –other country in the world will be imposing these on their agricultural sector.
We need to question why? Agriculture & primary production is still the backbone of the NZ economy. Why add another complication to an already uneven playing field. Remember – we are a long way from most of our markets so we have to be productive enough to supply produce competitively to start with.
The Northland Chamber has supported a sensible approach regarding emissions trading. The main discrepancy as far as the Chamber is concerned is why jump in and assist our economy to become uncompetitive. The NZEIR has itself put figures on loss of GDP and Job losses that are in the billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
In the meantime don’t forget that the rural economy is still a big earner for Northland and directly responsible for some of the commercial activity going on in our towns and centres today.
The Northland Chamber of Commerce is the networking, education, advocacy and marketing group for Northland business, and is part of a nationwide network of 30 and a world-wide movement of 21,000 chambers. Subscription to the free fortnightly chamber e-news can be arranged on
You can have a say on this by going to the Northland Chamber of Commerce Feedback website on www.northchamber.blogspot.com
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment