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.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six twenty four, Rowena Duncan of the countries with me
right now, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Ro hey, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Now what's the problem with the local cheesemakers?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
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
in Macro competing on price. But they're also coming up
with gourmet style options too, so things like why Mutter

(00:28):
Cheeses they're out of Gisbon. They've cut back on production
of Bri and Cammbi are 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
omerou they're shifting more towards food service, so that's your
restaurants and bowl quarters, just to reduce their reliance on
the supermarkets, because it's not just the supermarkets. Of course,

(00:51):
we've 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're flooding the supermarket. So I'd seen, you know,
one of my favorite cheeses from when I farmed over
seas in Wales on the supermarket shelves here in New Zealand.

(01:13):
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 (01:22):
It's interesting. 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.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
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 overseas and that's when
the women came through like you and I Hea. This
saved the day, started working the land. But when our
soldiers came back from New Zealand, those who maybe didn't

(01:50):
have farms to go back to, we had a balance 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 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

(02:13):
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 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

(02:34):
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
bosh Row.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Thank you, I appreciate something to think about tomorrow. It's
Roe Duncan who's filling in on the country for Jamie McKay.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to
News Talk sa'd Be from four pm weekdays, FOLLO the
podcast on iHeartRadio.