Ray Smith is Director-General of MPI. Photo / Supplied
OPINION:
The challenges over the last couple of years have tested the sector. Our farmers, growers, foresters, fishers, processors and others are doing their best to successfully navigate these . . . I continue to be impressed with the sector's resilience.
Our food and fibre sector continues to be front and centre during New Zealand's economic recovery from Covid-19. I'm incredibly proud to be part of these efforts, along with our team at the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).
Food and fibre export revenue recently hit new heights, reaching a record $53.3 billion in the year ending 30 June 2022, thanks to a strong last quarter, particularly in meat and dairy.
The sector's performance throughout the pandemic in producing vital food and fibre for New Zealanders and millions more around the world has helped to keep the economy growing.
This level of performance during a pandemic is a demonstration of the resilience and commitment of the sector toward getting the job done.
It hasn't all been plain sailing though, with challenges like supply chain disruptions, rising costs of fuel and fertiliser, workforce challenges, floods, and drought.
I'd like to acknowledge the sector's ongoing efforts and for working with us to navigate these challenges.
To aid our food and fibre sector's ongoing success, in 2020 we launched the Government and sector roadmap Fit for a Better World. At its heart is accelerating New Zealand's economic recovery by boosting productivity, sustainability, and jobs.
We're investing significantly in a range of projects through our Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund. We've committed more than $216 million in projects to date and, along with the sector's contribution, total funding is more than $482m.
Together we're backing a large range of projects from understanding regenerative farming practices in the New Zealand context to exploring and progressing new sectors, like hemp and medicinal cannabis.
A project that has just kicked off is our partnership with Ngāi Tah Farming Limited and Ngāi Tūāhuriri. Together, we're undertaking a whole-farm scale study in North Canterbury to validate the science of regenerative farming.
A key strand of Fit for a Better World is increasing export returns by an additional $44b over 10 years. I'm pleased to say we're making great progress, shown by our record year-end export figures.
The Government and sector are also working hard to connect New Zealanders with food and fibre jobs. An example is our Opportunity Grows Here attraction campaign, including targeting different job seekers across our food and fibre sectors. To date, there have been more than 900,000 views on our Opportunity Grows Here website, showing there is a keen interest in sector jobs.
Through Budget 2022, the Government committed more than $1 billion to the primary sector, including funding to help reduce agricultural emissions, increase productivity, to boost biosecurity, and provide vital support to farmers and growers on the ground.
This includes our new On-Farm Support team.
On Farm Support focuses on supporting farmers and growers to take an integrated approach to farm planning, helping them to adapt to regulatory change and helping connect them to expertise, tools, resources and services.
We're currently recruiting regional managers, who along with a small group of advisers, will have local knowledge and expertise. By late October, On Farm Support regional teams will be in place in Northland, Taranaki, Top of the South, and Otago-Southland.
By March 2023 we aim to have expanded the service to provide national coverage.
On Farm Support will complement existing services offered by the primary advisory sector and regional councils. We're committed to building our service offering by working together to increase support for farmers and growers.
We take climate change seriously, and I'm committed to helping to drive positive change in an area that is gathering more attention right across the world. MPI received $338.7 million over four years in the Budget to strengthen the role of research and development in getting new tools and technology to reduce on-farm emissions to farmers and growers quicker. This includes a new Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions. The centre will have two key components that will play complementary roles in driving research and development for reducing biological emissions — a new public-private joint venture with some of our top companies, and an enhanced New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC).
We're working through the operational details of the Centre in partnership with Māori, industry and the science sector, and we're aiming to have the Centre up and running this year.
MPI has another $329.7 million over four years to maximise the contribution of forestry in reducing emissions, boosting carbon storage and sequestration, and increasing our woody biomass supply, to help achieve New Zealand's future carbon goals.
Protecting our food supply for our team of five million, and millions more globally
The pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have brought into focus food supply and security across the world. In New Zealand, we're fortunate that we produce enough food every year to feed more than 40 million people, including those at home, and we've worked hard to maintain our reputation as a leading exporter of high-quality food and fibre.
Biosecurity quite rightly remains the number one concern for our sector, especially given foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Indonesia, and it was a major topic of conversation when I spoke at the recent China Business Summit.
I was able to tell the audience that New Zealand is free from FMD and that we're determined to keep it out.
The robust biosecurity system we have in place has strict importing requirements and strong border measures. These include risk assessments of all arrivals and cargo, 100 per cent screening of all checked in and cabin baggage, detector dogs and very strong import health standards, and there are additional checks for those arriving from Indonesia.
This is also a timely opportunity to raise awareness. The risk of FMD getting into New Zealand hasn't changed but we want people to be alert. Travellers and farmers have a crucial role to play in keeping New Zealand FMD-free, and that also means no more green lanes to fast-track people through.
I've received terrific feedback about our team's work at the border, and we all need to continue to play our part.
The challenges over the last couple of years have tested the sector. Our farmers, growers, foresters, fishers, processors and others are doing their best to successfully navigate these. More recently, they've also dealt with significant flooding. This deserves to be acknowledged.
I continue to be impressed with the sector's resilience and commitment to keeping the supply of food and fibre flowing.
Our food and fibre exports made up 81.4 per cent of New Zealand's total exports in the year to 30 June 2022, so there's a lot riding on the sector's success. Our latest export revenue figures should give us optimism and remind us of the importance of celebrating wins as we go.
At MPI, we're committed to continuing our work with the food and fibre sector and doing our part to help ensure its ongoing success and keep the wheels of the economy turning.
• Ray Smith is Director-General of MPI.
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Agribusiness and Trade report.
Dairy export revenue has lifted 16% to a record $27 billion.