MEAT
BSE, or mad cow disease, continued to turn Europeans off eating beef and on to lamb, giving New Zealand meat companies cause to rub their hands in anticipation.
In late January, it appeared 120 MAF meat works veterinarians, who oversee the slaughter and processing of stock, would bring the industry
to a grinding halt with a series of strikes. In February they accepted a previously rejected offer, along with an independent review of pay and conditions in what union official Ivan Finlayson said was a "strategic withdrawal".
Affco chief executive Ross Townshend's blunt description of some vets as "heavy-duty clock-floggers" fostered his high media profile, but, suddenly, he was the one out of a job, gone in a shock resignation just five days after an upbeat annual meeting. The departure started a clean-out of senior Affco managers and the adoption of a back-to-basics philosophy by chairman Sam Lewis, who took the company's executive reins.
DAIRY
The year began with Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton briefing the cabinet on the dairy mega co-op plan and the industry's argument for bypassing Commerce Commission oversight.
Welcome rain in February coincided with the Dairy Board's announcing it would pay the country's 14,500 farmers $1 billion more than last year.
In July, Craig Norgate, ex-chief executive of Kiwi Dairies, got the top job of the company named, a month later, Fonterra.
Years of work came to fruition in September with the announcement of possibly New Zealand's biggest commercial arrangement - Fonterra's joint venture with global colossus Nestle to market shelf-stable products like UHT milk, and refrigerated milk-based foods and beverages, in the supermarkets of North and South America. That and other global joint ventures pushed Fonterra up international dairy company rankings from ninth to fourth.
The same month, though, brought the first hint of dodgy export deals pre-dating Fonterra. They were soon dubbed "Powdergate" and grew into a $50 million embarrassment for the industry.
WOOL
The wool sector began the year hoping StrongWools NZ, a company intended to procure and market most of the country's wool, would fly.
But at year's end StrongWools Mk II, aka GrowerCo, had followed its predecessor into the offal hole of wool revival schemes.
PIPFRUIT
After 10 months of controversy over new apple export regulations during 2000, last year began with Mr Sutton urging submissions on a MAF review of the system.
In fact, debate erupted and raged for much of the year after Enza's corporate-shareholder-dominated board moved to saddle growers with all the cost of years of failed foreign exchange transactions.
Mid-year, a compromise was reached, the industry was deregulated and Enza became just one of growers' export choices.
KIWIFRUIT
There was a new burst of kiwifruit planting in the Bay of Plenty as growers enjoyed another good year, with returns up 7 per cent to $467.2 million.
MEAT
BSE, or mad cow disease, continued to turn Europeans off eating beef and on to lamb, giving New Zealand meat companies cause to rub their hands in anticipation.
In late January, it appeared 120 MAF meat works veterinarians, who oversee the slaughter and processing of stock, would bring the industry
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