Jacqueline Rowarth: DairyNZ Board Member on farmer confidence reaching its second highest point in the last decade

There's an expectation farmer confidence will stay high as long as commodity prices stay up. 

The latest Rabobank survey's found farmers' faith in the broader agricultural economy is at its second highest level in the last decade, up to 46%. 

51% expect it to improve in the year ahead. 

DairyNZ Board Member Jacqueline Rowarth told Mike Hosking the sector's cautiously positive, as trade may change at any time. 

But she says New Zealand is the best producer of essential amino acids at the lowest environmental impact, so our meat and milk is wanted. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back to those good news around the land. Latest word
from Rabobank is the farmer confidence as you've heard as booming.
Confidence in the egg economy is at the highest level
since twenty seventeen, second highest in a decade, up for
the fourth quarter in a row. Fifty one percent expect
conditions to keep on improving. Basically, a doctor Jacqueline Roweth
is the director of Dairy in New Zealand and is back.
Where's Jacqueline? Good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, and I'm speaking today as a professor at
Lincoln University and I'm happy to talk about dry stock
as well. So thank you for corning. Isn't it good news?
I'm very pleased.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
When you go down to the pub or the corner,
do people, you know, because you know what farmers are like,
they go, oh yeah, it's pretty good. At the moment,
it's all right, you know, they undersell it. Are people
fizzing in rural New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
They're feeling positive, but cautiously so because trade might change
at any time, as we know from what's happening around
the world. But fundamentally we are the best producers in
terms of essential amino acids, the nutrition that people needs
for least in vironmental impact, and the rest of the
world knows that, so our meat and our milk is wanted,

(01:05):
and that's why the prices are looking good. It's excellent
news because when you're looking good, you're being more creative,
you're able to make progress. You're feeling that for your
family and for the land, you're doing an ever better job.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Very well said. A lot of people ticks me and
go this whole idea that the money's going to flow
to the rest of the country isn't necessarily true. It's
all going on dit servicing. Do we know that that's
true or will it go both ways? A little bit
of dit, a little bit of.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Spending, certainly in a bit of debt, but certainly spending,
because spending hasn't happened on dry stock for or several years,
and for dairy for about three and repairs and maintenance
build up. And of course you want to bring in
the new environmentally friendly technologies and we're already very good
at that, but putting those in cost money. So then
you talk to the consultants, then you get the machinery

(01:55):
people in and the infrastructure people in. Yes, it flows
and really experienced Phil Jena. He's an agg economist. He
reckons that an increase of one million dollars in dairy
exports coming into the country means seven point two million
increase in value add within the economy and eight point

(02:15):
seven full time equivalents. It's employment as well.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
It's excellent news, fantastic. We had the story yesterday, what
is in the peaches in Hawk's Bay? Is there any
Is there anybody who's not on this rising tide? If
you grow something in this country, are you, broadly speaking,
doing well.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's horticulture is not doing as well. No, and it's
difficult to compete with other countries. And that's the peaches thing.
We have very strict regulations and we like the regulations,
but we also need the new chemicals that are allowed
in some other countries and are still going through the
process here, the regulatory process, which is a bit stagnant.

(02:53):
They're doing their best, but it's not fast enough. The
rules need changing and when you can get things cheaper,
and that's what the peach it's people were saying last night.
They can't compete for lettuces and broccoli and those sorts
of things. We don't bring them in from overseas, and
you can see that the cost of production are higher
than the income that they grow as are making.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
That's not good the forward picture. When we talk about tariffs,
do you know or do we know yet how many
of us are trying to circumvene America in other words,
we send to other markets that aren't as heavily tariffed.
Is that a thing yet or not?

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh? Yes, we're always investigating Tom McLay as a leader
of various delegations, if we're looking at the best positions
for our wonderful product. But the thing is that some
of our premium markets, and that includes America, they're still
able to pay more than some of the developing countries.
So always the scanning is going on and the professionals

(03:51):
are looking at how to position our products.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Best, and the quality is the key. Isn't it nice
to talk to you again, Jackeline Jaqueline Rowath. The pictures
thing was interesting. They were saying the numbers was like,
I can't remember, it was like ninety eight cents for
a ten of peachers. You bring it in, you know,
the end product, you bring it in from overseas, and
it's about a dollar sixty five dollars sixty eight if
it's grown locally here, And once again the call went out,
why don't you support local, support, the local gra the

(04:16):
local economy, And I think that's surely it has I mean,
I'd love to think that's true, But that ship sailed,
hasn't it. If you can do something for ninety eight
cents versus a dollar sixty five, which way you're going?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
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