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Dairy dollars help keep economy healthy

Rural News
Dairy dollars help keep economy healthy

Dairying at times receives its share of negative publicity for its enviromental record and  impacts of intensive agriculture, but we all should not forget how important this sector is to our economy and all New Zealanders.

This independent study spells out some of the facts on how the income generated has a flow through affect to us all, and NZ's vuneralbility  if dairy farmers have a bad year.

Relative to many countries of the world we are coping well with the recession, and much of that success is due to the  agricultural commodities we produce.

Some dairy facts from NZEIR: Dairy provides 26% of New Zealand’s exports.  A $1 rise in Fonterra’s payout makes every New Zealander nearly $300 better off. Dairy farmers spent around 50c in every dollar they received on locally produced goods and services.  Every tonne of dairy exports helps reduce the current account deficit, bringing down interest rates and reducing mortgage payments for homeowners. Dairying employs 35,000 workers directly and a further 10,000 contractors.

Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier said an increase of $1 to Fonterra’s payout boost real incomes by about $270 for every person in New Zealand, showing everyone benefits when the company does well. “Of the $7.5 billion farmers received in 2009, $3.6 billion was spent on domestically produced goods, including fertiliser, feed, agricultural services and financial services.“There is no doubt that dairy has helped us out of the recession and the benefits extend well beyond the farm gate.  Export growth from the dairy sector has helped narrow the current account deficit and that helps everyone through lower interest rates on mortgages and other borrowings.”

 DairyNZ Chief Executive, Dr Tim Mackle, said that last year dairying kept 35,000 people directly in work. “Our contribution to jobs is like having a city the size of Gisborne all working in the dairy industry. Urban centres also get a healthy share of indirect employment as they provide essential goods and services that are needed to produce dairy products.”

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1 Comments

Dairying at times receives its share of positive publicity for its enviromental record and  impacts of intensive agriculture. We all should not forget how important this sector is to the “Patchwork Economy” and a few New Zealanders and others.

“ The NZ100% pure Cowpat/ Fart- Factory ” "CFF" - a proud NZcompany - 100% funded by the NZtaxpayer.

One of the biggest uneconomic industries and growing - yes !

The risk of destoying sustainable NZfarming, NZeco tourism our NZenvironment and our NZhealth is growing.

PM - I think you really don’t know, how many billions of $ we have to spend in the next few years cleaning up this country in many aspect of life/ business ?

In stead of bloody creating an artificial financial South Pacific hub you better get more practical and learn how to use a broom. ..and PM prepare some sandbags too !

It is time for a “100%NZpure Economic Model” !

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