Rowena Duncum: The Country host on local cheesemakers voicing concerns about presence of supermarket cheeses

Local cheesemakers have voiced concerns about the competition created by supermarket-produced home-brands.

Smaller brands have been forced to scale back on production to reduce their reliance on the supermarkets - in a bid to focus on filling niches that appeal to Kiwi cheese lovers.

The Country's Rowena Duncum explains further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed Be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Six twenty four Rowena Duncan of the countries with me
right now, Hey ro Hey, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Now what's the problem with the local cheesemakers?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh my goodness. So basically there's some of the supermarket
private land label, so their own brand cheeses are maybe
increasing the competition for some of our small producers. So
we're talking to brands like Pam's Value Will We're signed
a macro competing on price. But they're also coming up
with gourmet style options too, so things like why Mutter Cheeses.

(00:45):
They're out of Gisbon. They've cut back on production of
Bring Cammber, just saying hey, we're having too much competition
in this space. So they're focusing now on the likes
of their Halloumi, which has still got quite a bit
of demand. White Stone cheese out of Omrou. They're shifting
more towards food service, so that's your restaurants and Bowld quarters,
just to reduce their reliance on the supermarkets, because it's

(01:05):
not just the supermarkets of course, got that New Zealand
EU Free Trade agreement, so cheap European specialty cheeses that
are like highly automated, the subsidized, which our farmers are not,
and they're really low cost and they are flooding the supermarket.
So I'd seen, you know, one of my favorite cheeses
from when I farmed overseas in Wales on the supermarket

(01:29):
shelves here in New Zealand. I thought, delightful. I love
that cheese. Now I'm actually seeing it from a different
perspective and saying, hey, if it's having this bigger impact,
probably not a good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
That's interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, a little bit of a heads up to buy
local if you care. Now what's going on with the
ballot blocks and Anzac Day. Yeah, so one of the
main things for rural New Zealand, and we're looking at
Anzac Day and the impact of the war obviously had
a huge impact in rural New Zealand, as it did
right around the country. But we lost a lot of
our farmers going over seas and that's when the women
came through like you and I Hea, this saved the day,

(02:01):
started working the land. But when our soldiers came back
from New Zealand, those who maybe didn't have farms to
go back to. We had a ballot system. So it
was part of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act of nineteen
ninety five, and what it did was try and reintegrate
returning soldiers into civilian life. So it had like a
lottery style ballot. If you want a parcel of land,

(02:22):
that was carved off some of these big stations. Some
of it was mardy land that was kind of taken
a bit under force as well. They actually handed out land.
The issue was not everyone was a farmer. They didn't
always know what to do with the land. And one
of the most infamous ballot blocks is from the Mungapurua
Valley up the Wanganui River. They basically looked at a map,
drew some lines without having seen the land, said good

(02:44):
luck to you, and that's how the bridge to know
where came about. There was a swing bridge. They decided
to build a concrete bridge and that was in about
nineteen thirty six. But by the end the valley soil
was really less fertile and the last settlers walked off
their farms in nineteen forty two, recognizing it was not
farmable land. It was much better in native bush Roth,

(03:04):
Thank you. I appreciate something to think about tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
It's Rod Duncan spelling it on the Country for Jamie Mackay.
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio