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Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says agritech exports worth $1.2b per annum, big opportunity for further growth

Rural News
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says agritech exports worth $1.2b per annum, big opportunity for further growth

The following is a press release from Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce.

New Zealand’s agritechnology exports are worth approximately $1.2 billion annually, and there is a big opportunity to grow them further according to the latest research into the sector, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said today.

The Coriolis Report into New Zealand's agritech sector was commissioned by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to understand the export opportunities for Kiwi agritech companies. It provides detailed analysis of the size, value and future potential of the agritech sector, New Zealand’s strengths in an international context, and compares our agritech production with similar-sized agricultural nations.

“The agriculture sector plays a very significant role in our economy,” Mr Joyce says. “This research shows that our innovative agritechnology systems generate very significant exports in their own right, and provide the opportunity to deliver much more for New Zealand in the years ahead.”

New Zealand’s agritech sector is made up of a diverse range of products and services, including animal and seed genetics, fertiliser and agri-chemicals, fencing supplies, farm tools, machinery and systems, and pumping and irrigation industries.

“Australia and the United States are our top agritech export destinations but the research reveals that exports to Canada, China, South Korea and Saudi Arabia are showing double-digit growth,” Mr Joyce says.

“New Zealand has historically underperformed in agritech exports compared with other advanced agricultural nations. However our exports are now growing more quickly than our competitors’, and opportunities for more growth exist across a wide range of markets. Europe, China and South America stand out as the biggest areas of potential growth.”

The removal of the dairy quota system is opening up opportunities in Europe and New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with China, along with China’s substantial demand for meat and dairy products, is providing New Zealand agritech companies with significant opportunities, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy says.

“New Zealand is one of the world's most efficient primary producers, and this report shows our expertise and technology in this area is in growing demand around the world.”

Animal health products, medicines and preventative treatments for on-farm use were the largest export earners at $311 million. This category was closely followed by fencing supplies and equipment, and machinery and systems, each with $307 million in export sales.

The report is available at: www.nzte.govt.nz/en/news-and-media/nzs-agritech-sector-going-from-stren…

 

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2 Comments

As small as this contribution is to our sovereign export needs, something has to improve because the consequences of deteriorating commodity prices and milk in particular will inevitably leak into mainstream reality.

 

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered is the first (of many) bank facing billions in losses resulting from the crude crash.

The bank, which recently has been on a firing spree and even exited its entire equity business, will likely need $4.4 billion of extra provisions to cover losses from commodities loans, potentially forcing it to raise billions of dollars from investors, analysts said on Monday.

From Reuters:

Credit Suisse analysts said the losses could force Standard Chartered to raise $6.9 billion to improve its core capital ratio to 11 percent by the end of the year. "We think the needed provisioning could be large enough to require further capital measures, such as further equity raising, and/or dividend reductions," analyst Carla Antunes-Silva said in a note.

Standard Chartered's shares were down 2.3 percent at 923 pence by 1330 GMT, the weakest major European bank.

There were previous hints, completely ignored by the markets of course, that things at this China-heavy bank are going from bad to worse: a jump in Standard Chartered's bad debts in the third quarter has prompted concern that it could face heavy losses from commodities loans after the fall in the price of oil and commodities. Read more

 

Are our own China dependent white gold lending institutions equally on the hook for poor performing loans? The domestic silence is astounding given the claims being made  from across the pond. 

If you have been scanning the press over the past week or so you may have come across an opinion piece by Michael Pascoe, prophesying doom for the New Zealand dairy industry and the Kiwi economy in general.

Pascoe has taken a look at the similarity between iron ore and dairy prices since 2013 - both have more or less halved in value over the period - and concluded that there is a hard landing in store for New Zealand. Read more

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well preference is silence compared to authored comments such as:

and New Zealanders would be no worse off than anyone else if the global economy imploded,

 

we put the differing and seemingly change of heart comments from Fran on the weekly dairy report page

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11385955

over there

http://www.interest.co.nz/rural-news/73513/weekly-dairy-report-milk-auction-seems-have-found-its-bottom-dry-affects-production

(lost the note of how t refer specific comments within another interest.co page :( )

 

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